Trends in Southern OFDI

Summary

FDI statistics generally suffer from important limitations, including the fact that data on cross-border financial flows are not necessarily the best indicators of global production activity. The quality of developing countries’ data is probably even poorer — the problem of round-tripping, for instance, is particularly severe and the use of tax havens is also very common. With these caveats in mind, some trends are clear. Asian investors contribute the lion’s share of Southern OFDI, while Latin American multinationals have lost the leadership that was theirs for most of the 20th century. Other countries are also emerging, with South Africa being especially present in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.