Greenfield investment is cross-border investment that builds new productive capacity — a plant, a facility or an operation established where none existed for that investor. The distinction matters because new capacity adds to output and employment in a way that a change of ownership does not. It is a category used in investment statistics and analysis rather than a defined term. Statistical treatments differ on exactly where the line falls: a substantial expansion of an acquired site, or a new facility built shortly after an acquisition, may be classified either way depending on the compiler. Check each source’s classification rules before treating two figures as measuring the same thing.
Why this entry carries no source list. This is an analytical concept from economics, not an instrument any body administers. There is no authority to cite because none is needed: the idea is used to reason about trade, not applied by a customs officer to a consignment. Where numbers are involved they come from statistical compilations whose conventions differ, so figures from two sources are not automatically comparable.