New Zealand's investment overseas continues to slip and more local assets are being snapped up by overseas buyers, according to a new report on foreign direct investment.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's World Investment 2006 report, released yesterday, showed foreign direct investment increased 29 per cent globallylast year.
The significant increase in outward investment by developing countries, led by Hong Kong, was highlighted in the report, which also showed New Zealand's outward investment as a percentage of gross domestic product fell 3 percentage points in the year to 10.2 per cent.
By comparison, Australia's outward investment as a percentage of gross domestic product was 22.5 per cent, America's 16.4 per cent and China's 2.1 per cent.
Inward investment to New Zealand as a percentage of gross domestic product was 50.7 per cent, compared with Australia's 29.8 per cent, America's 13 per cent and China's 14.3 per cent.
AUT international business professor Peter Enderwick, who is responsible for the New Zealand introduction of the report, expected to see a continued rise in foreign investment here in line with global trends.
David Skilling, chief executive of think tank the New Zealand Institute, said New Zealand was slipping behind the rest of the developed world.
He described the report as "another call to action" and said New Zealand needed to turn around its poor national savings performance.