Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey increased by 6.3% from June last year to June 2019, reaching approximately $12.4 billion. According to information compiled by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), FDI in Turkey retained almost a horizontal course until the 2000s and caught an upward trend in 2003. Foreign direct investment, which maintained an upward trend last year, saw a 6.3% rise from approximately $11.6 billion in June last year to $12.4 billion in the same period this year. Outgoing investments from Turkey, on the other hand, climbed by 2.4% compared to the same period last year. Qatar and the U.K. took the lead in foreign capital investments that came to Turkey in the January-June period.
Despite varying amounts, it was seen that while the investments coming from the U.K. were regular, Qatar's investments intensified in June.
FDI increased by approximately $188 million in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, amounting to $3.1 billion.
Around 19.4% of this investment came from Qatar, 18.7% from the U.K. and 17.5% from Azerbaijan. Compared to last year, the share of the top three countries in total investments increased from 34.3% to 55.6%. In the period covering 2002-2019, 15.8% of the approximately $157.9 billion invested by foreign residents came from the Netherlands, 7.6% from the U.S., 6.9% from the U.K., 6.7% from Austria and 6.2% from Germany. In terms of sectors, around 61.9% of the investments went to services, 37.7% to industry and 0.4% in agriculture.
Netherlands gets major share of overseas investments
In June, Turkey's overseas investments also concentrated in the finance and insurance activities sector. Approximately $94 million of the $414 million worth of the total overseas investments were realized in this sector. While 85% of these investments went to European countries, the Netherlands attracted $214 million in this period.
In the January-June period, overseas investments decreased by $373 million to $2 billion compared to the same period of the previous year. Considering the distribution of the overseas direct investments in this period, the Netherlands, the U.S., Germany and Switzerland were among the primary destinations. During this period, 48.4% of this amount was made in the Netherlands, 13% in the U.S., 8.6% in Germany and 6.6% in Switzerland.
Looking at the distribution of overseas investments by sectors in the period of 2002-2019, it was seen that 54.2% of the $45.9 billion was realized in industry, 45.4% in services and 0.4% in agriculture. In this period, 29.5% of the $45.9 billion in overseas investments went to the Netherlands, 14.3% to Azerbaijan and 13% to the U.S.
