According to the new UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report, "World Investment Report 2004: shift toward services," it appears that 2003 was the third consecutive year when a drop in global flows of FDI was recorded.
Last year, the fall amounted to 20 per cent , 3 per cent more than in 2002. The Central and East Europe region was also affected as the inflows amounted to US$21bn in 2003, while a year earlier the figure stood at US$31bn.
"Investments in the eight accession countries dropped from US$23bn to US$11bn. A large share of the drop was due to concluding privatisation processes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia," said Zbigniew Zimny, co-author of the report.
