According to statistics released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the U.S. Direct Investment outflow to Italy has reached an amount of $6.75 billion dollars in 2018. This value, which does not correspond to the cumulative level of investment (stock), represents the yearly outflow registered in 2018 and it has not been subject to seasonally and current-cost adjustment yet. If confirmed, such an amount constitutes a record value within the period 1980 – 2018, with the closest value of 6.40 billion reached in 2000.

The quarterly variation clearly denotes a remarkable increase in the last quarter of 2018. Indeed, the total net outflow for the first three quarters has been only 1.176 billion dollars, while the last three months have seen an outflow of 5.57 billion dollars.

Among the main investments which contributed to the substantial yearly result, those than may be mentioned are the acquisition of Italo by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) through a EUR 2.13 billion LBO on April 26, 2018, the acquisition of Versace by Michael Kors for EUR 2.12 billion on October 2, 2018 and the EUR 800 million investments made by Amazon including those in logistics and personnel.