The statistics on foreign direct investment in Portugal (FDI) by region, analyse the amounts of this investment by beneficiary Portuguese region.

One of the methodologies used by BdP is called establishments and considers “not only the region where the direct investment counterparty is located (…), but also the regions of the immediate counterparty’s direct subsidiaries that fall within the perimeter of the direct investment and the regions of the respective establishments of these entities”.

This approach allows, according to the BdP, “a distribution in the places where the economic activity of companies is actually located”.

Using this methodology, Banco de Portugal records that the Lisbon region was the destination for investment of 99,614 million euros, equivalent to 55.2% of the total.

In second place, the Northern region recorded foreign direct investment of 16.5%, with 29,848 million euros.

In third place, but already below 10%, with 17,807 million euros, the Algarve received 9.9% of total FDI in Portugal.

Centro (11,259 million euros and 6.2%), Madeira (8,645 million euros and 4.8%) and Alentejo (6,174 million euros and 3.4%) were also some of the preferred regions for foreign direct investment.

Setúbal, Oeste and Vale do Tejo and Azores were the Portuguese regions with the lowest stock of FDI in 2023, totalling, respectively, 3,925 million euros, 2,614 million euros and 524 million euros.

In 2023, FDI in all Portuguese regions increased, highlighting the year-on-year variations in Alentejo (12%), Setúbal (11.9%) and Algarve (11.3%).

Conversely, Madeira (0.7%), Center (1.8%) and North (3.3%) had the smallest fluctuations.

FDI in the Azores, West and Tagus Valley and Lisbon rose, respectively, 9.4%, 8.0% and 6.7%.

European investment

Europe was the continent that originated the majority of FDI in Portugal in 2023, being responsible for 156,284, equivalent to 86.6% of the total, followed by Asia (6.2%, 11,098 million euros), America ( 5.2%, 9,365 million euros), Africa (1.9%, 3,468 million euros) and Oceania (0.1%, 91 million euros).

Africa was the continent with the highest year-on-year growth (21.9%), followed by Asia (12.1%), while Oceania was the only block with a decrease in its FDI in Portugal in 2023, falling by 15.4% .

The Euro area was responsible for 73.9% of foreign direct investment in Portugal, while the European Union represented 76.3%.