Geostat: Preliminary Q1 2015 FDI USD 175m
Foreign direct investment in Georgia fell by 34% to USD 175 million in the first quarter of 2015 from the same quarter a year ago, according to preliminary data released by the state statistics office, Geostat, on Tuesday.
While there was a significant increase of FDI in some sectors – transport and communication, construction, and hotels – banking and real estate sectors recorded negative FDI inflows in the first quarter, USD -18 million and -10 million, respectively.
Transport and communications attracted most of the FDI in the first three months of 2015 – USD 146 million, up from USD 44 million in the same period of last year, followed by construction – USD 24 million, a four-fold increase compared to last year’s first quarter; mining – USD 18 million, 20% year-on-year increase; hotels and restaurants – USD 17 million, up from USD 2 million in last year’s first quarter; energy sector – USD 11 million, 8.3% y/y decline; manufacturing – USD 5 million, down from USD 46 million in the first quarter of last year, and FDI doubled to USD 2 million in the agriculture sector, compared to the same period of last year.
Most of the FDI came from Azerbaijan – USD 59 million, 25.5% y/y increase in the first quarter of 2015, followed by Turkey – USD 27 million, 10% y/y decline; Russia – USD 23 million, up from USD 20 million in the first quarter of last year; and USD 22 million came from companies registered in the Netherlands, down from USD 81 million in the same period of last year.
