Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the decrease in FDI net inflow was mainly in equity and investment fund shares, reflecting the global economic slowdown.

“This was in line with the United Nations Trade and Development’s 2024 Global Investment Trends Monitor report which highlighted that the FDI inflows to developing countries had declined about 9% to US$841 billion (RM 3.9616 trillion) in 2023.

“Notably, FDI to developing Asia dropped around 12% to US$584 billion (RM2.751 trillion), with Asean’s FDI decreasing about 16%,” he said in a statement.

However, the statistics department said, the cumulative value of the foreign investment, known as the FDI position, rose to RM926 billion at the end of 2023, making up 50.8% of gross domestic product versus 49% in 2022, primarily attributed to non-transaction categories.

On average, it said the return on investment for FDI companies in 2023 fell to 10 sen for every RM1 of investment from 12 sen in the previous year.

“Concurrently, Malaysian companies received six sen for every RM1 of investment made abroad,” it added.

On direct investment abroad (DIA), the statistics department noted that the net outflow narrowed 35% to RM40.6 billion in 2023 from RM62.8 billion in the preceding year.

It said the decrease is mostly attributed to the services sector with a value of RM34.5 billion, primarily in financial and insurance/takaful activities, as well as utilities.

Uzir said the services sector remained the primary contributor of DIA by registering an accumulated amount of RM461.1 billion in 2023, trailed by mining and quarrying (RM80.5 billion) and manufacturing (RM60 billion).

“The services sector also generated the highest income at RM23.9 billion in 2023,” he added.