Turkey received $7.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, with Spain leading in the amount of investment on a quantity basis, according to the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) data yesterday.
The largest share of FDI was from European countries, with direct investment inflows of close to $5 billion last year. Direct investments from European countries increased by 2.4 percent compared to 2016, while an increase of $114 million was achieved on a quantity basis.
In this period, investments from Asian countries, which had the largest share of direct investments in Turkey after Europe, decreased by 22.8 percent to $1.7 billion.
While the share of countries in the Americas is gradually decreasing in direct investments, investment inflows of $214 million came from these countries. Direct investments from countries in the Americas was $408 million in 2016, a 47.5 percent fall in capital inflows from those countries over the past year.
Last year, investment inflow from Africa was $43 million, $459 million from Oceania and $23 million from unclassified countries.
The Netherlands, the leading country in FDI to Turkey for years, maintained this position. While $1.8 billion came from Dutch investors, its share of total investments was 23.8 percent. With this amount, the Netherlands had more direct investment than Asia, Oceania, America and Africa.
The Netherlands was followed, in terms of FDI, by Spain with $1.5 billion, Azerbaijan with $1 billion and Australia with $459 million.
Meanwhile, direct investments in Turkey from Finland, Georgia, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Egypt, Slovenia, Slovakia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Taiwan, India and Saudi Arabia remained under $10 million last year.
On a quantity basis, Spain's direct investments in Turkey increased by $1.1 billion, followed by the Netherlands, an increase of $744 million, while direct investment from Australia rose significantly - from $24 million in 2016 to $459 million last year.
On the other hand, Russia topped countries decreasing direct investment in Turkey, falling by $719 million, followed by the United Kingdom ($650 million), Qatar ($320 million) and Switzerland ($287 million).