London Helps UK Stay Top Foreign Investment Destination in Europe According to Statistical Reports

Online, June 3, 2010 (Newswire.com) - [For Immediate Release]
(London, 3 June 2010) - A report commissioned today shows that the UK has continuously remained top in the attraction of foreign investments in Europe. Its capital, London, has sustained its reputation as a hub for the global financial sector, coupled with UK's vibrant corporate relationships with US, have bolstered UK's lead as the top European destination for inward investments.

This has been revealed today in a report commissioned by Ernst & Young in their latest European Attractiveness Survey. The report suggests that foreign money flowed into Europe in 2009 at a slower pace due to the region's economic downturn at the time. On average, European nations had cumulative FDI of about 3,303 investment deals; that represented a decline of 11% from 3,718 in 2008. In the report, Ernst $ Young had the UK leading, closely trailed by France and Germany. The report stated that UK's services sector powered this investment growth that got the UK leading.

In 2009, revealed the report, the UK had about 678 FDI projects, about 1% fewer than in the year 2008 and the cumulative jobs created by the FDI projects were 20,017. According to this latest FDI report, the largest foreign investor in the UK was the US with 243 projects, followed by France, Germany and India. However, the report warned that politicians and businesses may need to do more to attract investment from fast growing emerging markets. James Close, an Ernst & Young partner, said that the reason for the strong performance was not, nevertheless, the emergence of exciting new origins for investment or previously unforeseen sectors but that the UK had continued to achieve impressive FDI because of the strengths of London as a business and financial services center investment and, critically, its close corporate links with the US.

Even so, Scott Halliday, Ernst & Young UK and Ireland managing partner, warned further that the UK had to support sectors like clean technology as investment sources change. In 2009, overall US investments in Europe declined by 16% while China's Europe investments increased by almost 30%. He warned that emerging nations such as China, Brazil, India and the Middle East were joining the old international players as potential sources of global investments. London remains number one city in the attraction of inward investment in the European continent for the eighth year consecutively now. It had 263 FDI projects, way ahead of Paris that had 99 FDI projects. Most importantly, the survey's biggest losers were reflective of market concerns over growth and sovereign debt prospects.

Author info: Invest in UK is an initiative to market United Kingdom as an investment destination all over the globe, to provide a networking platform for UK businesses at a global level. For more information visit: http://www.investinuk.net/