Turkey received $466 million worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) by the end of March from Asian residents, while Azerbaijan topped the list with a total investment of $427 million in said period. FDI in Turkey, totaling $835 million in March 2018, reached $820 million in the same period this year, according to Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) data. During this period, Asian investors constituted $466 million of this figure, followed by Europeans with $342 million, Americans with $10 million and Africans with $2 million. Thus, 56.8 percent of the FDI March came from Asian investors.

In March of last year, Turkey attracted $751 million from Europe, $30 million from America and $54 million from Asia.

The figures show that Asian investors' direct investments in March recorded a significant increase of $412 million compared to the same period the previous year, while investments from Europe decreased by $409 million, a 54.5 percent dip.

Accordingly, Asia outpaced Europe, which had spearheaded the FDI figures for years.

The electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning sector secured the largest share in FDI as of the end of March with $420 million, which accounted for 56.8 percent of total investments.

Meanwhile, the electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning sector was followed by wholesale and retail with $268 million in foreign direct investment.

In March of this year, the Turkish manufacturing sector received $73 million in FDI, followed by finance and insurance activities with $15 million, information and communications with $11 million, professional, scientific and technical activities with $10 million, transportation and storage with $8 million, construction with $4 million, mining with $3 million and other sectors with $8 million.

The sector receiving the highest increase in direct investment in terms of quantity was again the wholesale and retail trade. While the sector in question received $22 million in FDI in March of last year, this figure surged by $246 million in the same month this year to $268 million.

Turkey attracted the most direct investment from Azerbaijan, the U.K., Italy, and France by the end of March this year. Capital inflow from Azerbaijani residents reached $427 million in this period, accounting for 49.9 percent of total direct investments.

In this period, $253 million in FDI came from the U.K., $22 million from Italy and $12 million from France. Austria, on the other hand, recorded the highest decrease in FDI. Austrian residents' direct investments, which stood at $250 million in March last year, went down to zero in the same period this year. Meanwhile, Turkey has attracted $210 billion in FDI in the last 17 years. In 2018, the country attracted nearly $13.2 billion in foreign direct investment, an increase of 21 percent compared to the previous year, according to official figures. In 2017, Turkey attracted $10.83 billion in net international direct investment, whereas this number was $13.34 billion in 2016. The Netherlands and Azerbaijan were the top two sources of direct investment last year.