Investment flows into emerging markets will fall this year

Investment flows into emerging markets, a category which includes South Africa, will drop significantly this year, following a fall last year (2008). This is the forecast from the Institute of International Finance (IIF), which is the global association of major banks.

Total foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into all emerging markets amounted to a record $304-billion in 2007, declining to $263-billion last year, and likely to be only $197-billion this year. FDI is investment in hard assets - factories, mines, and so on - and not in stocks and shares.

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