联合国(United Nations)昨日发布的初步数据显示，去年的并购热潮促使全球外国直接投资(FDI)猛增逾三分之一，达到1.2万亿美元，为2000年创下1.4万亿美元纪录以来的最高水平。

Last year's boom in mergers¹ and acquisitions fuelled a surge in global flows of foreign direct investment of more than a third last year to top $1,200bn, according to preliminary United Nations figures released yesterday. This was the highest since 2000 when FDI hit a record $1,400bn.

联合国贸易和发展会议(Unctad)表示，去年流入世界富国的投资跃增近50%，达到8000亿美元，美国从英国手中夺回了FDI最大接受国的地位。流入美国的FDI飙升至1770亿美元，其次是英国和法国，分别为1700亿美元和880亿美元。

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said investment inflows to the world's rich nations jumped by nearly half to $800bn (￡412bn), with the US recovering its top position from the UK as the largest recipient² of FDI. FDI flows into the US soared to $177bn, followed by the UK at $170bn. France was third at $88bn

中国仍是发展中国家最大的FDI接受国，在全球位居第四，不过2006年流入中国的FDI略有减少，从2005年的720亿美元降至700亿美元。

China maintained its position as the largest FDI recipient in the developing world, coming fourth overall, though there was a slight drop in inflows in 2006 to $70bn from $72bn in 2005.

流入发展中国家的FDI总额达到了3680亿美元，流入东欧和中亚地区"过渡"经济体的FDI去年创下620亿美元的新纪录。

Overall FDI flows to developing countries reached $368bn and flows to "transition" economies in eastern Europe and central Asia set new records last year at $62bn.

然而，联合国贸易与发展会议警告人们不要对2007年的趋势过于乐观："预计2007年的经济增长将适度减缓。持续的全球外部失衡、剧烈的汇率波动、不断提高的利率、日益增长的通胀压力以及高位震荡的大宗商品价格带来的风险，可能也会阻碍全球FDI流入，导致过去几年快速增长的全球FDI增速减缓。"

However, Unctad warned against over-optimism on trends for 2007. "Economic growth in 2007 is projected to slow moderately. Continuing global external imbalances, sharp exchange rate fluctuations³, rising interest rates and increasing inflationary pressures, as well as high and volatile⁴ commodity prices, pose risks that may also hinder global FDI flows and could lead to a slowdown in the fast growth in global FDI registered over the past few years."

并购在发达国家FDI流入中占据了很大份额，因此，单笔大额交易就可能使个别国家的FDI流入和排名较上年发生明显改变。

In developed countries, mergers and acquisitions account for a large share of FDI flows, and consequently flows and rankings for individual countries can vary widely from year to year on the strength of a single valuable deal.

不过，联合国贸易与发展会议指出，欧盟(EU)仍然最大的FDI流入地区，去年吸引了全球45%的FDI。

Still, Unctad noted that the European Union continued to be the largest host region, taking 45 per cent of all FDI inflows last year