The level of total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Ireland increased by €30.4 billion to €169.3 billion last year, according to new figures published by the Central Statistics Office.
The jump in FDI is a result of an increase of €26 billion in the level of equity capital and reinvested earnings to €210.8 billion, the CSO said.
The Netherlands appeared to be the biggest investor in the Irish economy last year, accounting for €37.5 billion of the €169.3 billion total, while the United States contributed €4.3 billion.
However, CSO statistician Stephen McDonagh attributed the high amount of investment coming from the Netherlands to the US, saying he was “reasonably certain a lot of investment from the Netherlands originated in the United States”.
“It is most likely that American companies based in the Netherlands are channelling money through there for tax reasons. The Netherlands has a huge amount of foreign companies that are registered there”.
Outside the Netherlands, Luxembourg was the biggest source of foreign investment in Ireland in 2009, pumping €23.8 billion into the economy. The UK and France were next investing €19.6 billion and €11.6 billion respectively. South American countries meanwhile accounted for €18.6 billion of direct foreign investment in Ireland.
On the other side of the coin, the value of Irish investments overseas increased to almost €190 billion, a jump of almost €70 billion.
Mr McDonagh said he was surprised by the robust figures and increases in investments coming into and leaving Ireland, saying “you’d expect to see a significant drop-off because of the recession”.
The services sector accounted for 93 per cent of the direct investment stock overseas last year, compared to 85 per cent the previous year. Similarly, the services sector accounted for 70 per cent of the stock of direct investment in Ireland.