国际英语新闻:Global foreign direct investment rises to pre-crisis levels, UN reports

West Asia's two main recipients, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, registered significant declines of 19 percent to 9.9 billion dollars and 15 percent to 11 billion dollars, respectively. Turkey witnessed virtually no large FDI deals. In addition, the worsening political instability in many parts of the region have caused uncertainty and negatively affected investment.

Flows to Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 18 percent, the fourth consecutive year of growth, to an estimated 294 billion dollars. While in previous years growth was largely driven by South America, in 2013 Central America and the Caribbean were the main recipients, with increases of 93 percent and 38 percent respectively. Flows to South America declined by 7 percent.

The 18-billion-dollar acquisition of Grupo Modelo in Mexico explains most of Central America's increase, while the strong rise in the Caribbean was mainly driven by the British Virgin Islands, said the report.

The decline of flows to South America came after three years of strong growth bolstered by the strength of commodity prices that fueled rising profits on investment, as well as reinvested earnings in mining.

Decreasing commodity prices seem to have brought a stop to this boom, especially in countries such as Chile, with a drop of 33 percent to 20.4 billion dollars and Peru, with a drop of 2 per cent to 12 billion dollars.

In addition, FDI to Brazil, the largest recipient in the sub- region, with 47 percent of South America's total in 2013, declined by a slight 3.9 percent, but remained significant at 63 billion dollars. Nevertheless, this decline should be seen in the context of strong growth in previous years that boosted FDI in Brazil to historical highs.

Inflows to Africa rose by 6.8 percent to an estimated 56.3 billion dollars, due to the strong performance of Southern Africa, including South Africa and Mozambique which experienced record levels of more than 10 billion dollars and 7 billion dollars respectively, as well as lower levels of divestment in Angola compared to previous years.

Persistent political and social tensions continued to subdue flows to North Africa, where only Morocco registered solid growth of 24 percent to 3.5 billion dollars. Nonetheless, there are signs that investors are ready to return to the region, with many big cross-border deals targeting Egypt. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria 's lackluster performance (5.5 billion dollars) is the result of a retreat from the oil industry.

Transition economies experienced a significant 45 percent rise, reaching a record level of an estimated 126 billion dollars, with Russia jumping by 83 percent to 94 billion dollars, making it the world's third largest recipient for the first time ever.