Global FDI flows rise over 70%

The global foreign direct investment flows were valued at $852 billion in the first half of 2021, Arab News quoted UN data, as saying.

This reflected a partial-year growth of 78 per cent when compared to 2020.

In the US, inflows were up by 90 per cent, driven by a surge in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

However, James Zhan, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s director of investment and enterprise, said that this “mask(s) the growing divergence in FDI flows between developed and developing economies.”

While FDI inflows to high-income countries leapt by a massive partial-year rate of 117 per cent, low-income countries faced a 9 per cent decline in inflows.

Eurozone’s construction

The euro area’s construction output fell by 1.6 per cent year-on-year in August, data released by Eurostat revealed. This was driven by a 2.9 per cent annual decline in civil engineering production and a 1.3 per cent fall in building construction.

Construction fell the most in Spain and Romania as they saw their annual construction output slip by 13.9 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

On the other hand, Hungary experienced the highest jump in yearly construction production, growing by 10.2 per cent. Poland was the second highest with a 7.9 per cent year-on-year rise.

On a monthly basis, the zone’s construction also declined by 1.3 per cent in August when compared to July.

European trade balances

Switzerland’s trade surplus decreased to CHF4.4 billion in September down from the all-time high of CHF4.6 billion recorded in the previous month, official data showed.

Exports declined by a monthly rate of 0.2 per cent in September. This was driven by a fall in exports to a number of countries. Most notably, exports to the US and Japan slumped by 22.2 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively.

On the other hand, imports rose by 0.9 per cent to reach its highest level in 20 months. Imports of pharmaceutical products experienced the highest increase as it grew by 5.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Spain’s trade deficit steeply expanded to €3.87 billion in August from a deficit of €1.73 billion in the same month last year, according to official data.

This was the largest monthly trade deficit since September 2019 as imports leaped by 33.9 per cent year-on-year to €26 billion. This was fuelled by an 11.4 per cent rise in energy purchases and a 7.9 per cent jump in imports of chemical products. Meanwhile, exports rose at a slower 25.1 per cent growth rate to reach €22 billion.

During the first eight months of the year, Spain’s trade deficit rose to €10.87 billion, from €9.6 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Indonesia’s interest rate on hold

Indonesia’s central bank kept interest rates steady at its record low level of 3.5 per cent on Monday. Rates remain low to boost economic activity, the bank said.

Bank Indonesia expects the economy to grow by 3.5 per cent to 4.3 per cent in 2021.