Largest increase in foreign direct investment in real estate and manufacturing

In 2019 the total positions of foreign direct investment in Norway increased with NOK 91 billion, to NOK 1 440 billion from NOK 1 349 billion in 2018. Over NOK 84 billion of the increase in positions came from investments in stocks, shares and other equity. The rest of the change in position came from changes in reinvested earnings, transactions in debt instruments and other changes. The new transactions statistics in the direct investment statistics also show Norwegian foreign direct investment transaction of NOK 66 billion in 2019.

Norwegian investors focused on IT and telecommunications in 2019

Information and communication, and telecommunication were the two industries abroad where Norwegian investors invested the most in 2019, with total transactions of NOK 35 billion and NOK 29 billion respectively. Administrative and support service activities followed with NOK 16 billion. Mining and quarrying, and financial and insurance activities abroad were the two industries where Norwegian investors reduced their direct investments the most, with NOK 27 billion and NOK 17.5 billion respectively. The majority of the reduction is due to sale of stocks, shares and other equity.

Real estate activities and manufacturing in Norway the most attractive to foreign investors in 2019

Figure 1 shows that real estate and manufacturing where the two single industries with the largest total transactions of foreign direct investment in 2019, with NOK 15 billion and NOK 14.5 billion respectively. Together, the investments in these two industries are one third of the total transactions of the foreign direct investments in Norway in 2019. Construction, administrative and support service activities, and information and communication industries followed. These five industries totalled 55 per cent of the total inward transactions in Norway in 2019.

Mining and quarrying still largest income

Mining and quarrying continued to be the industry with the largest income to foreign direct investors in 2019, as it has been since 2017, with almost NOK 53 billion. Foreign direct investors had a total income of NOK 7.7 billion from real estate activities and NOK 12 billion from manufacturing in 2019. Most of the income came from distributed earnings.