A Look at the Facts

Globally an enormous investment boom is under way. In nominal terms gross capital formation has more than doubled worldwide since the trough in 2001 and will reach 14,000 billion US-dollar in 2008.

Simultaneously the flow of investment has gradually shifted toward emerging markets and developing countries which now attract 38 percent of global capital formation – up from 23 percent in 2001. The ratio of investment-to-GDP has increased in the emerging economies from 24 to 29 percent – in Asia even to 39 percent, a leap by 10 percentage points. The increase in per capita investment in these regions has been equally remarkable. This global investment boom can be explained mainly by world-wide economic growth and high revenues from natural resources in a number of the emerging countries.