FDI Reporting 2020
Germany remains an attractive business location despite the coronavirus pandemic
The annual FDI report by Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) shows that Germany has attracted more foreign business in 2020 than experts had predicted. GTAI has documented 1684 international companies who set up shop with greenfield investments, expansions and relocations last year. There were also 372 M&A transactions.
The decline is anything but surprising considering the global coronavirus crisis. But the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) predicted that foreign business investments would decline by fifteen percent within the EU, so nine percent is ultimately positive news.
American businesses led the way with 254 projects in Germany, followed by Switzerland (219) and China (170). Germany is also becoming more and more attractive as a business location for e-mobility companies, with major expansions by US carmaker Tesla and Chinese battery producer SVOLT. Other popular sectors for projects were ICT and software (19 percent), business and financial services (17 percent), consumer goods (ten percent) and machinery manufacturing (nine percent).
These and other results can be found in the overall presentation of our FDI Reporting 2020
