Forbes Global Money Flows
NEW YORK - In 2003, foreign investment in the United States--establishing new businesses or acquiring existing ones--rose to $60 billion, a modest 11% increase from 2002. Activity was far greater in the 1998-to-2001 period, when new investments ranged from $147 billion to $336 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The countries that made the biggest outlays in the U.S. last year were Germany and the U.K., while France and the rest of Europe scaled back their new investments. Japan's purchase of U.S. assets declined for the third consecutive year, to only $1.4 billion. Much has been written about how foreigners are taking away U.S. jobs, but what about the business generated overseas by U.S.-based multinationals? As shown in the second table below, the ten largest of these firms generated 42% of their 2003 revenue outside the U.S. Aided by a weak dollar (the same amount of sales in foreign currencies now gets translated into more U.S. dollars), foreign sales rose 17% in 2003, versus 7% for domestic revenue.
Read the entire article here forbes.com Especially the table at the bottom that shows the global revenues of major corporations.
)
