Foreign investment rises in top economies: UNCTAD

GENEVA: Global Foreign Direct Investment in leading economies rebounded by 38 percent during the second quarter of 2009, but remained below levels reached a year earlier, a UN thinktank said on Monday.

"Initial indicators for the third quarter of 2009 show no signs of a further pickup," the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a statement.

UNCTAD said preliminary data showed that "global flows in foreign direct investment (FDI) rebounded during the second quarter of 2009."

"In the G20 economies, there was a 38 percent increase in such investment over the first quarter of 2009."

The agency's measure of foreign direct investment trends, the Global FDI Quarterly Index, rose from 70 to 115 between the first and second quarter, but remained 45 points lower than a year earlier.

An UNCTAD survey in July indicated that mutlinational companies expected that their investment expenditure would take two years to regain momentum after a sharp drop in 2009.