Portugal holds 9th place in EY foreign investment ranking

Portugal held on to ninth place among Europe’s most attractive destinations for foreign direct investment in EY’s 2026 Attractiveness Survey, despite a 5% year-on-year fall in projects in 2025. The result suggests Portugal remained relatively resilient as investment decisions across Europe became more selective amid geopolitical tensions and trade frictions.

According to the EY study, Portugal attracted 186 foreign direct investment projects in 2025, placing it below Belgium and above the Netherlands. The decline was smaller than the European average drop of 7%. EY’s ranking combines FDI project data with the views of 200 international decision-makers on countries’ attractiveness.

Knowledge-intensive activities continued to underpin inflows into Portugal. Software and IT services, together with business and professional services, accounted for 44% of all FDI projects captured by the country last year. EY also said expansion projects rose from 26% to 37% of the total, which it sees as a sign of confidence from companies already operating in Portugal.

The survey suggests investors still see room to grow. Among technology respondents, 66% said they planned to establish or expand operations in Portugal over the next year, up 11 percentage points from the previous year. But EY said Portugal has yet to turn that resilience into stronger competitive gains against faster-growing European markets for investment attraction, including Turkey, Poland and Finland.

Looking ahead, investors surveyed by EY said Portugal should prioritise AI, cloud and data centre ecosystems, cited by 20% of respondents, followed by logistics and supply chains at 16% and sustainable reindustrialisation and advanced industry at 15%. The report said Portugal’s ability to attract international talent, growing renewable energy availability, political stability and regulatory conditions could support that next wave of investment.

Originally published at Eco.pt