Outflows and inflows of investment from and into the European Union (EU) fell last year from 2007 levels, official figures showed on Thursday.

In 2008, the 27-nation EU's foreign direct investment (FDI) in other parts of the world was down by 28 percent, from 496 billion euros in 2007 to 354 billion euros, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency.

Inflows of FDI into the EU dropped by 57 percent, from the previous year's 400 billion euros to 173 billion euros.

In 2008, intra-EU FDI flows dropped by 42 percent compared with 2007, said the agency.

The EU invested 149 billion euros in the United States, compared with 171 billion euros in 2007.

EU investments, however, grew from 24 billion euros to 33 billion euros in Switzerland, and from 16 billion euros to 22 billion euros in Russia.

U.S. investment in the EU last year fell drastically from 194 billion euros to 45 billion euros, while investments from the offshore financial centers dropped from 124 billion euros to 45 billion euros.

Switzerland's investment in the EU was down from 20 billion euros to 5 billion euros, Japan's from 19 billion euros to 4 billion euros and India's from 10 billion euros to 2 billion euros.

Investments from Canada rose from 14 billion euros to 18 billion euros and Brazil from 2 billion euros to 7 billion euros.

Despite its growing importance in goods trade, EU FDI flows with China (excluding Hong Kong) remained modest in 2008, with EU investment in China at 5 billion euros and Chinese investment in the EU at 0.1 billion euros, figured showed.

Luxembourg, France and Britain were main actors in extra-EU FDI flows, said the statistics agency.

Luxembourg, with outflows of 83 billion euros, which accounted for 23 percent of the EU total, was the largest investor in extra-EU countries in 2008, followed by France (58 billion euros, or 16 percent) and Britain (52 billion euros, or 15 percent).

Luxembourg was also the main recipient of FDI inflows from extra-EU countries. It received 76 billion euros, or 44 percent of the EU total inflows, followed by Britain with 45 billion euros, or 26 percent, and France with 25 billion euros, or 15 percent.

In 2008, the EU was a net investor in the rest of the world, with outflows higher than inflows by 182 billion euros (1.5 percent of GDP).

Among the EU member states, France was the largest net investor outside the EU in 2008, with net investment of 33 billion euros, followed by Germany with 27 billion euros and Spain with 25 billion euros.

With inflows higher than outflows by 9 billion euros, the Netherlands was the largest net recipient of FDI from extra-EU countries.

France was the main actor in the intra-EU FDI with an investment of 92 billion euros, followed by Germany with 71 billion euros, and the Netherlands with 37 billion euros.

France was also the main recipient of investments from other EU countries with 55 billion euros in 2008, followed by Spain with 40billion euros and Belgium with 34 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.36 U.S. dollars)