evidence: As noted in the section 1.1 "Global economic, trade and investment environment", most of the global decline was associated with weak flows into developed countries. In contrast, FDI flows to Canada increased by $11 billion or 19% in 2019. CDIA was also opposite to the global trend: CDIA grew in 2019 and has been and continues to be mostly destined for developed economies. Indeed, less than 10% of CDIA stock is destined for developing countries where it is largely concentrated in countries of Central and South America (Yergeau 2019). Overall, CDIA flows rose by $37 billion or 57% in 2019, albeit after an equally important decline between 2017 and 2018. As Figure 1.5 shows, both CDIA and FDI flows can be quite volatile, since 1 or 2 large transactions can greatly influence the results for a given year. For example, the low level of FDI in 2017 was partly attributable to 2 large acquisitions by Canadian companies of foreign subsidiaries in the energy sector. These acquisitions represent divestitures (or declines in FDI flows), and yet Canadian interests were maintained in terms of production and economic activity. Excluding these 2 large transactions from the data for flows for that year means that FDI flows were approximately $45 billion—just over 30% (or about $11 billion)—higher than the reported $34 billion in official statistics.