The Middle East was considered one of the hottest markets globally and it was attracting a vast amount of foreign investments in the past decade. However, due to the tightening of credit and the deterioration in the global economy, Middle East’s foreign direct investments (FDI) were pulled back by nearly a quarter.
A recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) stated that inflows of FDI to the region dropped by 24 percent reaching USD68 billion in 2009 after six years of growth.
On a country to country basis some countries had different fate from the others; for example, in 2009 Qatar had an increase of FDI inflows of 112 percent and Lebanon had an increase of 11 percent, while the UAE was hit the most and the FDI inflows decreased by 71 percent. Saudi Arabia remained the largest receiver of foreign investments, with inflows reaching USD36 billion, 52 percent of the middle east’s total FDI inflows.
Although the FDI inflows were hit hard in 2009, the FDI outflows were hit harder- they decreased by 36 percent, reaching USD23 billion. This decrease was mainly attributed to the UAE as their FDI outflows fell from USD16 billion to USD3 billion. Saudi Arabia FDI outflows increased the most, from USD1.5 billion to USD 6.5 billion. Kuwait was the largest investor, with USD9 billion in outflows.
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