Top 3 FDI trends to look out for in 2021 Mihai Cristea 15/02/2021 | 16:09 Like most countries in the region, Romania has a strong demand for foreign direct investment (FDI) to support its post-COVID-19 economic recovery. We take a look at the latest trends regarding foreign direct investment in our region and how they could influence Romania. By Claudiu Vrinceanu 1.FDI will continue to suffer Globally, FDI flows are likely to have decreased by 30-40 percent in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, based on early data published by UNCTAD, and a rebound is not expected to take place until 2022. Read more about Foreign direct investment inflows to Romania and other countries in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe (CEE) dropped by 58 percent in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown curbed economic activity, according to a report from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw). In this context, FDI inflows should return to pre-COVID levels in about two years, and the CEE region could benefit from near-shoring of production by major western multinationals. Economists say that if the COVID-19 situation stabilises in the coming months because of the vaccine, there could be grounds for optimism in the second half of 2021.