Despite some negative political and security developments in Lebanon during 2014, according to UNCTAD’s annual World Investment Report, Lebanon’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows grew by 6.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to $3.1B in 2014. This comes despite global FDIs falling by 16% to $1.23T, over the same period. The improvement in inflow could be attributed to the low base recorded in 2013, as well as the y-o-y surge in Greenfield investments from $106M in 2013 to $1.2B in 2014.
FDI inflows to Lebanon represented 26.9% of gross fixed capital formation in 2014, up from 25.0% in 2013.
Regionally, Turkey was the top host economy in West Asia, despite the 1.7% yearly contraction to $12.1B in FDI inflows followed by United Arab Emirates (4.0% yearly decline to $10.1B) and then the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (9.6% yearly fall to $8.0B). Saudi Arabia’s FDI inflows are expected to enhance in 2015, bearing in mind their new open door policy to foreign investment, which was implemented in June of this year.
UNCTAD World Investment Report 2015
5 July
