2011 Reports

Inward FDI in Portugal and its policy context, 2011

Simões, Vitor Corado; Cartaxo, Rui Manuel

Portugal's performance in attracting inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) during the economic and financial crisis in 2009 was poor, below the low figures that it had already recorded in the previous couple of years, although Portugal did not record negative FDI inflows like competing countries such as Ireland (in 2008) and Hungary (in 2009). The country's difficulties in attracting IFDI are, however, structural. The "golden" years of the early 1990s, when Portugal emerged as an attractive and fashionable location, are past. The country's IFDI performance throughout the first decade of the 21st century was, in general, weak. In 2009, Spain, France and Brazil were the main sources of IFDI in Portugal. In spite of the Government's commitment to attracting IFDI, policy design and implementation have fallen short in the increasingly fierce competition for international investment.