Foreign multinationals operating in Ireland last year sent almost $23 billion (€18.3 billion) more out of the country than they invested here, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said yesterday.

According to the OECD's new report, Trends and Recent Developments in Foreign Direct Investment, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined in 2003 and 2004 and turned strongly negative in 2005. But when taken as an average over the period 1996 to 2005, Ireland received far more foreign direct investment than any other OECD country of comparable size.

Amongst the thirty OECD member state economies examined in the report, only Ireland and Australia experienced this trend in 2005.

A spokesperson for the OECD said that American multinationals recently increased the pace at which they repatriated profits out of Ireland. In 2004 the American Jobs Creation Act came into force, allowing US multinationals to repatriate profits at a favourable rate of corporation tax, and was a significant factor in the negative inflows in 2005.

In the ten years to 2005, Ireland received a total of $108.4 billion in foreign direct investment. The United States came first, receiving $1,539.7 billion.

Amongst smaller countries Belgium and Luxembourg - calculated jointly for the purposes of the study - received the most, getting $948.8 billion in the period.

The Netherlands and Sweden also performed well, receiving $312.6 billion and $157.2 billion, respectively, although this implies a somewhat less impressive performance over this period than Ireland when the populations of those countries - 16.4 and 9 billion, respectively - are taken into account.

The deterioration in FDI flows into Ireland combined with a rising level of investment by Irish companies abroad caused the so-called net outflow of FDI to increase almost tenfold to $42.6 billion last year, up from $4.6 billion in 2004.

The world's largest recipient of FDI last year was the UK, which received $164.5 billion, followed by the US with $109.8. But amongst non-OECD countries China is catching up quickly, the report shows, attracting $72.4 billion last year compared with $60.6 billion in 2004.

"The outlook for FDI in the coming years is positive overall, as the expectation is for macro-economic conditions to firm in most OECD countries," the report states. "But this outlook may be dampened by interest rate increases and rising concerns about international security", it adds.