Turkey received $8.1B in foreign investment in 9-month

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL

Turkey received $8.1 billion in net international direct investment from January to September 2018, the Industry and Technology Ministry announced on Friday.

The sum of net foreign direct investment (FDI) was $7.76 billion in the same period of 2017.

According to the official data, the amount of net FDI the country received was $1.06 billion in September, while the highest amount of FDI was seen in August with $1.3 billion during the 9-month period.

Regarding equity investment, which is the leading item on the overseas direct investment account, direct inflow to Turkey was some $4.26 billion, with 64.8 percent of this amount coming from the European Union.

During the period, Italy ($478 million), Austria ($418 million) and the Netherlands ($338 million) were the top three European sources of direct capital inflow.

Meanwhile, $997 million FDI came from Asian countries and $249 million from the U.S. in the same period.

$943 million of the total equity capital entry was in the manufacturing sector, followed by the financial intermediation sector with $916 million.

Including 27 branch offices, a total of 4,918 new foreign-backed firms were established in Turkey, while 87 local companies benefited from international participants.

Last year, Turkey attracted $10.94 billion in net international direct investment, $7.45 billion of which was equity investment inflow.