First-quarter 2018 foreign direct investment flows in the United States were below average for the past few years at $58 billion, while FDIUS for the full-year 2017 was revised upward to $292 billion.This followed record-breaking years in 2015 and 2016. FDIUS for both years were also revised upward to nearly half a trillion dollars each. While FDIUS in 2017 was the fourth- strongest for the past decade, it was down 40 percent from the 2016 level.
These investments benefit the American economy as international firms build new factories across the United States, buoy their well established U.S. operations, fund American research and development activities, and employ more than 6.8 million Americans in well-paying jobs.
Globally, inward FDI fell 23 percent to $1.43 trillion in 2017 from the previous year, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The United States maintained its number one position in the world as a destination for FDI. UNCTAD projects that global FDI flows in 2018 will increase by just 10 percent, remaining well below the average over the past several years.
