The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released its annual World Investment Report on global and regional foreign direct investments (FDI) trends on June 9.
The report examined global trends in financing sustainable investments, investments' recovery from the pandemic, greenfield investments, the role of project finance in infrastructure, international tax reforms, among other selected topics on FDI such as investment promotion tools, special economic zones and regional cooperation frameworks.
According to the report, global FDI flows in 2021 recorded an increase of 64 percent, reaching USD 1.58 trillion compared to the previous year, stemming from the rebound in merger & acquisitions market and robust growth in international project finance.
Showing variance in different parts of the world, developed countries observe an upward trend with USD 746 billion, while developing economies count an increase of 30 percent with a peak of USD 837 billion. The share of developing countries in global flows remained just above 50 per cent.
As for Türkiye, FDI flows to the country reached USD 14 billion with an increase of 79 percent. Türkiye's share in the global flows constantly raised from 0.6 percent in 2019 to 0.8 percent in 2020 and 0.9 percent in 2021. The wholesale and retail sector attracted USD 3.4 billion of FDIs, especially in technology-focused e-marketplace companies, accounting for 44 percent of total capital investments. Looking at the continent-based source of FDI coming to Türkiye, Europe took the lead with a share of 60 percent, while Asia and America were following with shares of 23 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
With the strong performance displayed in the last 19 years, FDI flows to Türkiye since 2002 have exceeded USD 240 billion. FDI flows have thereby made significant contributions to the sustainable development of the country and financed 41 percent of the current account deficit.