KUWAIT CITY: The flow of foreign direct investment into Arab states dropped 15.1 percent last year due to the ongoing impact of the global economic meltdown, a pan-Arab organization said on Tuesday.
Total FDI in the 18 states dropped to $80.7 billion in 2009 from $95 billion the previous year, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp. said in its annual report.
But the organization said the region’s decline was the lowest among international economic blocs, citing an improving investment climate in most Arab nations.
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, accounted for $35.5 billion of all FDI into Arab states in 2009, although it declined from $38.2 billion the previous year, the report said.
Foreign investment in Egypt fell from $9.5 billion in 2008 to $6.7 billion last year, while it rose for Qatar, Lebanon, Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen and Kuwait.
Gas-rich Qatar was second with $8.7 billion, up from $6.7 billion the previous year.
FDI in the United Arab Emirates plunged to $8.5 billion from $13.7 billion in 2008, the report said.
The report covered only 18 Arab countries as information on the remaining four states was not available.
