Worldwide foreign direct investment rose in 2025 after two years of decline, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning, though, that the recovery was “narrow, fragile and uneven”.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) swelled by 6.0 per cent last year to $1.6 trillion, according to the UN Trade and Development agency UNCTAD.
But its World Investment Report 2026 stressed that the hike was lopsided, with 20 countries attracting more than 80 per cent of global FDI last year.
And investment growth was concentrated in a few sectors, while in most sectors, new project activity was “subdued”, with heightened investor uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and trade policy volatility, as well as the rising cost of capital and growing technological competition.
The FDI growth seen in 2025 “masks underlying fragility and disparities across countries, regions and sectors”, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned in the preface to the report.
