Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows jumped by 38 per cent to $1.76 trillion, their highest level since the global economic and financial crisis of 2008–2009. A surge in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to $721 billion, from $432 billion in 2014, was the principal factor behind the global rebound. The value of announced greenfield investment remained at a high level of $766 billion.

FDI flows to BRICS countries declined by 6 per cent in 2015, to $256 billion. The five BRICS countries are home to 41 per cent of the world population and account for 23 per cent of world GDP between them but received 15 per cent of global FDI flows in 2015. They held $2.4 trillion FDI stock in 2015 – 9 per cent of the world total. FDI in BRICS is highly concentrated, with China alone receiving more than 50 per cent of the group’s total FDI inflows in 2015. Unlike other economic groups, BRICS members are not active investors in each other’s economies: the share of intra-BRICS investment in total FDI flows to the group was less than 1 per cent between 2010 and 2014, and intra-BRICS cross-border M&A sales have also been low, averaging $2 billion in 2014−2015.

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