In accordance with the recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Bank of Lithuania has published the data on annual foreign direct investment (FDI) for 2021 by the ultimate investing country. Redistribution of the accumulated FDI by ownership structure allows to determine the ultimate investing country that controls the direction of investment and bears the risk, as well as identify round-trip investment. Round-tripping is when the capital that has been channelled abroad by resident investors is returned to the domestic economy as reinvestment in the form of FDI. This investment does not provide the typical benefit of FDI to the country, since in most cases tax benefits of both other countries and the resident country are utilised.
The data published show that, as of 31 December 2021, the USA (€6.3 billion) was the largest investor in Lithuania followed by the Sweden (€4.1 billion), United Kingdom (€3.1 billion) and Germany (€1.8 billion) (see Chart). Round-trip investment amounted to €1.5 billion in Lithuania. The comparison of FDI data by the ultimate investing country with the direct investing country data reflects a significant increase in investment originating from the USA, while investment from Honk Kong, Germany, Estonia, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Latvia, and Luxembourg declined by more than 50%.
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