受到全球经济复苏动力不足和投资政策不确定性的影响，2012年全球外商直接投资比上年下降了18%。跨国企业大多倾向于消化过剩产能，巩固资产负债表，而不是进行扩张性投资。这一情况在2013年不会有明显改观，预计2013年国际直接投资仍将接近2012年1.35万亿美元的水平。在国际直接投资舞台上，与发达国家的低迷形成鲜明对比，发展中国家的重要性日益凸显。2012年发展中国家吸引的外商直接投资创纪录地首次超过发达国家，占比达到52%。而在对外直接投资方面，中国成为2012年仅次于美国和日本的世界第三大对外直接投资国。
Adversely affected by the sluggish recovery of the global economy
and the uncertainty of investment policy, the global foreign direct investment (FDI)
fell nearly 18% from a year earlier． Multinational enterprises preferred overcapacity
digestion and the balance sheet consolidation rather than expansive investments． This
situation would not fundamentally change in 2013． As a result, the global FDI in
2013 was likely to maintain the level in 2012 around $ 1． 35 trillion． Compared
with the lackluster developed economies, the importance of developing countries in
the global FDI scene has come out prominently． The FDI inflow to the developing
world has for the first time in the history exceeded that to developed economies in
2012． As for the FDI outflow, China became the world’s third largest outward
investor after the United States and Japan．
