Through the postwar era, the US, Western Europe and Japan dominated global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Today, these inflows are entering an era of "Asianization."

The global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows peaked at more than $2 trillion in 2007, before the global financial crisis. As the US subprime market collapsed, the crisis spread to other major advanced economies and global FDI inflows shrank to $1.2 trillion in 2009.

During a brief rebound, global FDI was driven by stimulus packages and recovery measures in the advanced world. But as these policies expired, so did the rebound. Global FDI inflows plunged again to less than $1.4 trillion in 2012.