The EU continues to be the main source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Republic, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The latest figures show the stock of inward investment from the original 15 EU states has continued to rise since 2001 and at the end of 2003 was almost two-thirds (or €113,960 million) of the overall total (€171,943 million).
Dutch investment accounted for just over €60 billion in the last two years and exceeded the combined amounts from all other EU countries.
But the stock of inward investment from the United States showed a decline over the three years and, at €22,221 million at end-2003, was just 13 per cent of the total.
The CSO said the drop was largely due to some US-owned enterprises (such as treasury companies) located in Ireland granting loans to their foreign affiliates. It may also be due to indirect routing of US investment via other countries.
In this context, much of the investment by US companies in Ireland is brought through intermediary subsidiaries located outside the US.
The CSO said a sizeable proportion of the €60 billion Dutch investment referred to originated in the United States.
The figures show Irish investment flows into the United Kingdom in 2003 amounted to just over €1 billion - or almost one-third of the total stock of outward foreign direct investments (FDI) flows €3,139 million.
By the end of 2003 the stocks of outward FDI to US (€5,844m) and to the United Kingdom (€8,868m) had changed little from 2002.