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Booming Germany investing more abroad

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Booming Germany investing more abroad
Photo: DPA

German companies are investing abroad like never before, making the country the world’s biggest foreign investor after the United States.

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That’s according to a new United Nations report which shows Germany far ahead of the countries like China, Japan and France.

Among Germany’s largest investors abroad are communications company Deutsche Telekom as well as carmaker Volkswagen and logistics firm Deutsche Post.

Germany’s international footprint has become enormous. In 2009, the country’s companies had about $78 billion (€54 billion) invested abroad, whereas investment had ballooned to $105 billion by last year.

Still, the country trails far behind the United States, whose companies have more than $300 billion invested overseas.

Much foreign investment by Western countries is focused on Asia, which is viewed as the market of the future. Asia also has extremely cheap production costs, making it an attractive destination to invest in manufacturing.

Total worldwide foreign investment totals more than $1 trillion today and is rising – although it fell slightly during the financial crisis – according to the United Nations report.

The United Nations expects the boom to continue in the coming year but should settle down to between $1.4 and $1.6 trillion, corresponding to the global average before the financial crash.

The Local/DPA/mdm

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