Belgian companies less international

Belgian companies are casting aside their international ambitions and focusing on the internal market, report De Tijd and L’Echo. Belgium is seventh in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ‘deglobalisation’ top 10. Belgian companies invested a total of €2.02 billion in acquisitions and mergers abroad in the first eight months of 2012. In the same period, however, they discontinued €4.35 billion’s worth of economic activities abroad. The trend is linked to the international economic crisis and is not specific to Belgium.