Suchergebnisse

The unfavourable balance of foreign direct investment plays a major role in the ongoing debate on the quality of Gennany as a business location. High direct investment outflows and low inflows compared with the United Kingdom and France are often seen as a sign of weakness of the Gennan "Standort". The relative attractiveness of different countries for foreign direct investment is usually measured in tenns of the balance of payments data of the host countries. However, owing to still very divergent recording practices across the industrial countries, such comparisons may be misleading. In this paper it is shown that the statistical eITors are minor if investor countries", rather than host countries", data are used to compare the relative attractiveness of different economies for foreign direct investments. Over aperiod of 11 years, foreign balance of payments data show that Gennany has received a considerably higher amount of foreign direct investments than is recorded in the Gennan balance of payments. On the outflow side the different data sources give a more homogeneous picture of a persistently heavy commitment of Gennan companies abroad ...

The ongoing political crisis between Russia and the West jeopardize the achievements in economic relations that have been made over the past two decades. Foreign direct investments in Russia which are essential to modernize its economy may be lost if the Russian government does not send clear signals to restore confidence of Western investors.

The ongoing political crisis between Russia and the West jeopardize the achievements in economic relations that have been made over the past two decades. Foreign direct investments in Russia which are essential to modernize its economy may be lost if the Russian government does not send clear signals to restoreconfidence of Western investors.

Germany is often criticized for its large current account surpluses. The surpluses are caused by differences in economic growth between Germany and its major trading partners, the innovative strength of German enterprises, as well as improved relative price competitiveness and a successful integration of German enterprises into global sourcing and production networks. In addition, they are associated with inter-temporal saving and investment decisions of German households and businesses. Until the outbreak of the economic and financial crisis the elimination of exchange rate risk within the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) induced large net capital exports of Germany into the peripheral economies which mirrored the current account surpluses. The surplus against EMU economies has halved in recent years, whereas it has continued to rise against third countries. International trade is not a zero sum game. Increasing German exports contribute to growth in other economies due to their high import content. It does not make sense to raise German imports artificially via push button. Stronger wage growth and higher government expenditures, which are often claimed, could undermine successful economic reforms in Germany. In the longer term, due to demographic factors, the German current account surplus is expected to decline significantly. ; Deutschland wird oft wegen seiner hohen Leistungsbilanzüberschüsse kritisiert. Die Überschüsse sind durch Wachstumsdivergenzen zwischen Deutschland und seinen wichtigsten Handelspartnern, die Innovationskraft der deutschen Wirtschaft, eine verbesserte relative preisliche Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und die erfolgreiche Einbindung deutscher Unternehmen in globale Beschaffungs- und Produktionsnetzwerke entstanden. Zudem stehen sie in Zusammenhang mit intertemporalen Spar- und Investitionsentscheidungen der deutschen Haushalte und Unternehmen. Bis zum Ausbruch der Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise induzierte die Beseitigung des Wechselkursrisikos innerhalb der Europäischen Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion (EWU) hohe Netto-Kapitalexporte Deutschlands in die Peripherieländer der EWU, die den Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen spiegelbildlich gegenüberstehen. Gegenüber den EWU-Ländern hat sich der deutsche Leistungsbilanzüberschuss in den letzten Jahren halbiert, gegenüber Drittländern ist er jedoch weiter gestiegen. Der internationale Handel ist kein Nullsummenspiel. Steigende deutsche Exporte tragen aufgrund ihres hohen Importanteils zum Wirtschaftswachstum der deutschen Handelspartner bei. Es macht keinen Sinn, die deutschen Importe per Knopfdruck zusätzlich zu erhöhen. Höhere Lohnsteigerungen und zunehmende Staatsausgaben, wie sie oft gefordert werden, könnten die erfolgreichen Wirtschaftsreformen der letzten Jahre in Deutschland untergraben. Längerfristig ist aufgrund der demographischen Entwicklung mit spürbar sinkenden deutschen Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen zu rechnen.

In 2011 and the first half of 2012, inward FDI (IFDI) flows to Germany continued to be relatively strong. Germany attracte market-seeking MNEs, as its economy showed remarkable economic growth despite the ongoing problems in many other countries of the Eurozone. In the second half of 2012, IFDI flows turned sharply negative, declining for the year as a whole to only US$ 7 billion, compared with US$ 49 billion in 2011. This decline reflects the difficult financial situation of many companies, including banks in the Eurozone, and could also dampen inflows in 2013. In the longer-term, Germany could profit again from rising FDI as its economy has successfully implemented reforms over the past decade, and the German Government has continued to keep its investment policy regime open.

In 2011, German outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows temporarily declined, regaining their growth momentum again in the first half of 2012. The German corporate sector further expanded its foreign operations to gain and expand market access and improve the efficiency of its international production networks. The European sovereign debt crisis had no major negative effects on German OFDI until mid-2012. Recently, however, several indicators have suggested that the foreign investment plans of German multinational enterprises (MNEs) are under revision due to the continuing European sovereign debt crisis and the economic downturn in many European economies. The German Government has continued to support the internationalization process of the German corporate sector.

In 2010, German companies strongly increased their investments in foreign affiliates, with outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) flows having reached their third highest value on record (US$ 105 billion). Flows were driven by rising exports and growing profits of the German corporate sector. In 2010, the German economy made a robust recovery from the worldwide economic and financial crisis and became a growth engine among European Union (EU) countries. A further increase of OFDI is expected in 2011, as German companies are seeking to strengthen their strategic position in their main markets, although the pre-crisis level of OFDI flows of US$ 171 billion in 2007 will be hard to achieve. The German Government has continued to support the internationalization process of the German corporate sector by expanding its network of bilateral investment treaties and providing financial support and information services.

With a stable economic and political system, open capital markets, the largest domestic market in Europe, and European Union (EU) membership, Germany has attracted competitive and export-oriented multinational enterprises (MNEs) since the 1960s. In the 1990s—after German unification and the opening up of Eastern Europe—inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) grew more slowly than expected despite the increased market potential. In recent years, the German economy strengthened and the wage and cost gaps against its main competitors narrowed, contributing to higher IFDI. With the financial and economic crises, German IFDI declined considerably in 2008 but started to rise again in 2009. At the end of 2008, Germany ranked among the top four developed countries as host for IFDI. Germany's open investment regime was tightened in 2009, in reaction to the emergence of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).

The emergence of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and some spectacular investments of these funds in recent years have caused widespread attention on international financial markets. Most SWFs are domiciled in Arabian countries, East Asia and Russia. Their low transparency led to concerns that SWFs could threat national security and the economic order of industrialised countries. This paper describes the growth and the investment strategy of SWFs, the impact of their investments on host and investing countries as well as policy reactions of selected countries. Several international organisations (European Union, OECD, the IMF together with the International Working Group of Sovereign Funds) have already undertaken initiatives that will help to improve the transparency and accountability of SWFs and to develop best practices for investing countries as well as for recipient countries. National policy reactions of several host countries, like the tightening of rules for cross-border investments in the United States and in Germany, were therefore rather counterproductive. ; Das Wachstum und eine Reihe von spektakulären Investitionen von Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) haben in den letzten beiden Jahren auf den internationalen Finanzmärkten für viel Aufsehen gesorgt. Aufgrund der geringen Transparenz vieler SWFs gab es Befürchtungen, dass diese Fonds, die überwiegend in arabischen Ländern, Ostasien und Russland angesiedelt sind, eine Bedrohung für die nationale Sicherheit und das Wirtschaftssystem von Industriestaaten sein könnten. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag werden das Wachstum und die Anlagestrategie von SWFs, die Auswirkungen ihrer Investitionen auf Empfänger- und Geberländer sowie die Politikmaßnahmen der betroffenen Länder beschrieben. Es zeigt sich, dass die nationalen Reaktionen der Empfängerländer, zum Beispiel die Verschärfung der Regelungen für grenzüberschreitende Investitionen in den Vereinigten Staaten und Deutschland, wahrscheinlich zu weit gingen, zumal auf supranationaler Ebene (Europäische Union, OECD und IWF zusammen mit einer Arbeitsgruppe von SWFs) bereits Initiativen auf den Weg gebracht wurden, die zu einer verantwortungsvollen und transparenteren Politik der SWFs wie auch der Empfängerländer von Investitionen beitragen.