While the focus of this report will be on direct investment inflows to Canada, it is worth noting that Canadian direct investment abroad has grown faster than foreign direct investment into this country for most of the period since 1990. (See Chart 4.) Between 1993 and 2002, Canada's cumulative direct investment inflow was $206.1 billion U.S. and the cumulative direct investment outflow was $223.5 billion U.S., for a net cumulative outflow of $17.4 billion U.S.5
Because outflows have grown faster than inflows since 1993, the structure of Canada's net international direct investment portfolio has changed in the last decade. Canada used to be a substantial net debtor on the world stage, the necessary corollary to being a favoured destination for foreign direct investment or a consequence of having more investment opportunities than domestic savings. By 1997, it had become a net creditor of FDI, a trend that has continued to the present. Canada has more direct investment in other countries than foreign countries have in Canada.