The main reason is the collapse of the cross-border takeover boom that led to the explosion of FDI at the end of the 1990s.Most people assume that FDI is greenfield investment new factories springing up on virgin soil.
The chart below looks at the top host countries for FDI in 2013.
Asia retains its place as the continental grouping with the most FDI, with its $426bn inflows making it worth almost 30% of worldwide investment.
Days that achieve an FDI score of over 50 have previously been given a risk category of "extreme".
A new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTADD) has shown that Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows grew year-on-year to $1.45tn in 2013.
Although Latin America and the Caribbean saw overall positive growth in FDI inflows, it was mostly due to Central American growth despite a 6% decline in South America.
The official scale of reference is the Fire Danger Index (FDI), which uses 1939's Black Friday as its benchmark, affording that a score of 100.
Before we go any further, let's just give the World Bank's definition of FDI outflows and inflows: FDI net inflows are the value of inward direct investment made by non-resident investors in the reporting economy.
We've put the data for all current FDI inflows and outflows in the spreadsheet below.
These are called FDI outflows and despite a decline of 14.5%, North America remains the top region for outward investment for a second year with $381bn.
FDI net outflows are the value of outward direct investment made by the residents of the reporting economy to external economies.
