Press Release No. 14/286

IMF Releases Revised Results for 2009-2012 from Coordinated Direct Investment Survey

June 18, 2014

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today released revised results from its Coordinated Direct Investment Survey (CDIS), the Fund’s worldwide survey of bilateral direct investment positions. The results, published as an online database, comprise direct investment positions data for participating economies at end-2009 through 2012. The survey is conducted annually since 2009, with revised data released semi-annually, and country participation is broadened over time. The preliminary results of the CDIS for end-2013 are expected to be released in December 2014.

The revised results include data for 101 economies in 2012 (compared with 88 economies in the December 2013 release) and 103 economies in 2011. The thirteen additional economies that provided data for 2012 include Albania, Benin, Cabo Verde, Georgia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Morocco, Rwanda, Slovak Republic, Tanzania, Uruguay, and West Bank and Gaza.

According to the revised results, in 2012, total inward direct investment amounted to US$26.3 trillion, revised up from US$26.0 trillion in the December 2013 release. Total outward direct investment amounted to US$26.5 trillion, revised down from US$26.6 trillion in the December release.

Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment where a resident in one economy has control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise resident in another economy. The CDIS database−available publicly at http://cdis.imf.org and through the IMF e-library−presents detailed position data on “inward” direct investment (i.e., direct investment into the reporting economy) cross-classified by economy of investor, and data on “outward” direct investment (i.e., direct investment abroad by the reporting economy) cross-classified by economy of investment. In most instances, separate data on net equity and net debt positions are available. All participants in the CDIS provided data on their inward direct investment and most participants (70 economies for 2012) also provided data on their outward direct investment.

The CDIS database contains breakdowns of direct investment positions including, as noted, separate data on net equity and net debt positions, as well as tables that present “mirror” data, in which data from the reporting economy are shown side-by-side with the data obtained from all other counterpart reporting economies. Mirror data may be compared to an economy’s own estimates vis-à-vis the counterpart. Mirror data are useful in highlighting data gaps or errors, and therefore where follow up efforts may prove beneficial. The CDIS website also allows users access to metadata reports (which provide information on the characteristics of the data reported in the CDIS by a given country, including its data coverage and compilation methodology).