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The increasing importance of multinational enterprises, as well as their geographic and sectoral diversity, have stimulated interest in the area of direct investment statistics among policy makers, analysts and statisticians. OECD has a well known and established interest in foreign direct investment statistics through the collection and publication of data and the publication of international methodological standards for the measurement of direct investment.

Initially designed jointly by the OECD and the IMF, the Survey of Implementation of Methodological Standards for Direct Investment (SIMSDI) was first launched in 1997 and has since been updated on 2 occasions, most recently in 2008. The Survey is also available in Russian.

This survey is a comprehensive study on the metadata for foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics. It provides information on methodological practices of individual countries as well as the data sources they use and their data collection and dissemination methods. SIMSDI has proved to be an indispensable working tool for the harmonisation, comprehension, and interpretation of FDI statistics.

Documentation and links

• 2008 Report on the Survey of Implementation of Methodological Standards for Direct Investment (SIMSDI), May 2008 (also available in Russian).
• 2003 Report on the Survey of Implementation of Methodological Standards for Direct Investment (SIMSDI), March 2003
• IMF/OECD report on Foreign Direct Investment Statistics: How Countries Measure FDI, October 2003 [ Download the pdf file /Order the publication ]
• Revision of the Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment
• IMF Direct Investment Methodology home page
• IMF Balance of Payments Manual, fifth edition (Washington, 1993)