Overseas foreign direct investment (FDI) by Turkish residents saw a major increase last year.
FDI made abroad by Turkish residents reached about $4 billion in 2018, a 26 percent increase compared to the same period of the previous year, according to data compiled from the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT). The same figure totaled $3.2 billion in 2017.
The service sector constituted $2.2 billion, followed by industry with $1.8 billion and investments in agriculture sectors with $17 million. In 2018, FDI abroad decreased by 19 percent in agriculture compared to the previous year, showing an increase of 24 percent in industry and 28 percent in services.
In terms of subitems, last year residents made the highest foreign direct investment abroad in the finance and insurance sector with $1.2 billion. About 53 percent of this amount was realized by resident holdings.
Resident holdings' foreign direct investment abroad in finance and insurance rose to $930 million last year, seeing an increase of $672 million compared to 2017. This shows that holdings have almost quadrupled their foreign direct investment abroad.
In this period, resident banks' foreign direct investment abroad in the field of finance and insurance dropped by 30 percent to $126 million. These figures indicate that holdings recorded a sevenfold increase compared to the banks in this field.
Mining and quarrying held the largest share in residents' foreign direct investment abroad right after finance and insurance. A total of $830 million of foreign direct investment was made in this sector by residents last year.
In the same period, foreign direct investment of $536 million was realized in the field of manufacturing abroad, followed by real estate with $433 million and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning production and distribution with $387 million.
Meanwhile, within the scope of overseas transactions of Turkish residents, accommodation and food services received $161 million in foreign direct investment, followed by occupational, scientific and technical activities with $121 million and construction with $66 million.
Despite a serious decline in global FDI, Turkey reached a total direct investment amount of $13.2 billion in 2018, thus achieving a significant increase of 14 percent year-on-year, according to Investment Office President Arda Ermut last week.
He added that the country attracted around $1.2 billion in foreign direct investment in December 2018, seeing an increase of 38 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.
Production topped the total capital investments with $2 billion, followed by retail, finance and energy, respectively.
According to data from a report by the Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), global FDI flows decreased to $432 billion in the first half of 2018 from $632 billion in the second half of 2017. Compared to one year earlier, global FDI flows were 44 percent lower than the first half of 2017.