Portugal ranked ninth among Europe’s most attractive destinations for foreign direct investment in EY’s 2026 Attractiveness Survey, ECO News reports.

The result comes despite a 5 percent year-on-year fall in projects in 2025, suggesting that Portugal remained relatively resilient as investment decisions 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 of 7 percent.

EY’s ranking combines FDI project data with the views of 200 international decision-makers on countries’ attractiveness.

Technology and services attract investment

Software and IT services, together with business and professional services, accounted for 44 percent of all FDI projects in Portugal last year. Expansion projects rose from 26 percent to 37 percent of the total, which EY sees as a sign of confidence from companies already operating in Portugal.

Among technology respondents, 66 percent said they planned to establish or expand operations in Portugal over the next year, up 11 percentage points from the previous year.

According to EY, Portugal now faces the challenge of translating this resilience into stronger competitive gains to compete with faster-growing European markets in attracting investment.

Future investment priorities

Investors surveyed by EY said Portugal should prioritise AI, cloud and data centre ecosystems, cited by 20 percent of respondents, followed by logistics and supply chains at 16 percent and sustainable reindustrialisation and advanced industry at 15 percent.

The report highlighted Portugal’s ability to attract international talent, expanding renewable energy supply, political stability and favourable regulatory conditions as factors that could support further investment.

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