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Statistics on where Australia invests

Australian businesses invest huge amounts of money in other economies. At the end of 2019, the total amount of Australian money invested overseas was around $3.0 trillion.

Where does Australia invest?

The United States and the United Kingdom remain the two largest economies for Australian investment. At the end of 2019, Australian investments in the US totalled $837 billion and our investment in the UK was $507 billion.

Australian investment in Asia has increased dramatically over the past decade. Between 2009 and 2019, our investments to major Asian economies (China, Hong Kong (SAR of China), India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and all ASEAN members) has increased from $120 billion to $472 billion.

The table below shows the top 17 economies where Australia invests (as at the end of 2019). Totals are in A$ billion and include both direct, portfolio investment and other investment.

Where does Australia invest?
2019, A$ billion
Rank in 2019	Economy	2017	2018	2019	% of total	% change 2018 to 2019	5-year trend % growth
1	United States	683.4	729.0	837.4	28.4	14.9	5.7
2	United Kingdom	347.9	406.3	507.4	17.2	24.9	7.8
3	Japan	125.0	113.3	139.6	4.7	23.1	12.0
4	New Zealand	103.7	96.5	130.5	4.4	35.2	5.3
5	Germany	74.1	73.4	97.1	3.3	32.2	6.9
6	China	77.3	79.1	85.3	2.9	7.7	7.7
7	Singapore	59.9	73.0	84.1	2.8	15.1	10.6
8	Canada	49.9	79.8	83.4	2.8	4.6	16.7
9	Cayman Islands	65.6	79.5	82.4	2.8	3.7	16.3
10	Hong Kong (SAR of China)	49.3	52.7	63.4	2.1	20.4	5.2
11	France	50.1	54.2	52.4	1.8	-3.4	3.3
12	Netherlands	43.4	45.8	44.4	1.5	-3.1	3.4
13	Bermuda	41.7	37.9	38.7	1.3	1.9	1.1
14	Switzerland	36.1	26.5	33.7	1.1	27.4	7.6
15	Republic of Korea	20.0	21.5	22.7	0.8	5.5	9.1
16	Ireland	16.9	15.5	21.5	0.7	38.2	14.4
17	India	13.9	15.6	19.9	0.7	27.8	15.3
	All economies	2,369.4	2,547.7	2,953.1	100.0	15.9	7.5
Based on ABS catalogue 5352.0. Last Updated: May 2020.

How does this compare with other economies?

Australia is the 16th-largest international direct investor the world.

The table below shows how our level of direct outward investment compared with other economies in 2019. Yearly values are in US$ billion.

Economies ranked by direct foreign outward investment 2019, US$ billion
Rank in 2019	Economy	2017	2018	2019	% of total	% change 2018 to 2019	5-year trend % growth
1	United States	7,828.7	6,452.7	7,721.7	22.3	19.7	4.1
2	Netherlands	2,531.1	2,380.6	2,565.3	7.4	7.8	5.0
3	China	1,809.0	1,982.3	2,099.4	6.1	5.9	20.0
4	United Kingdom	1,773.6	1,788.2	1,949.4	5.6	9.0	3.4
5	Japan	1,497.5	1,567.2	1,818.1	5.3	16.0	9.4
6	Hong Kong (SAR of China)	1,813.3	1,829.4	1,794.0	5.2	-1.9	5.1
7	Germany	1,650.3	1,651.5	1,719.4	5.0	4.1	5.2
8	Canada	1,532.2	1,366.2	1,652.5	4.8	21.0	7.1
9	France	1,440.4	1,499.2	1,532.8	4.4	2.2	4.3
10	Switzerland	1,438.5	1,494.7	1,526.2	4.4	2.1	7.9
11	Singapore	1,002.3	1,025.8	1,106.2	3.2	7.8	10.8
12	Ireland	986.8	942.9	1,085.2	3.1	15.1	9.1
13	British Virgin Islands	830.8	870.2	911.3	2.6	4.7	6.0
14	Belgium	721.9	593.3	656.4	1.9	10.6	2.2
15	Spain	604.7	583.0	606.5	1.8	4.0	3.6
16	Australia	503.2	497.0	579.3	1.7	16.5	5.1
17	Italy	547.6	552.7	558.4	1.6	1.0	4.5
18	Cyprus	452.3	436.9	442.8	1.3	1.4	2.7
19	Republic of Korea	360.6	405.2	440.1	1.3	8.6	11.5
20	Sweden	384.6	383.2	396.5	1.1	3.5	0.6
	All economies	33,040.5	31,507.5	34,571.1	100.0	9.7	3.7

Source: UNCTADstat database. Last Updated: October 2020.

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Statistics on where Australia invests

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