Posted by meb at March 16th, 2007

Turkey saw $6 billion in FDI in January, indicating a record inflow of capital. FDI was only $452 million for the same month of 2006.
An official from the Treasury, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the record inflow was due to the payments remaining from mergers and acquisitions of foreign investors in 2006. Examples of the large investments are the purchase of Dışbank by Fortis, Finansbank by the National Bank of Greece, Turkey Economy Bank (TEB) by BNP Paribas and Telsim by Vodafone.

Financial officials underline that investments experienced a boom, particularly in real estate, and estimate that if the trend can be maintained, 2007 will see more records. They emphasize that an increase in FDI means an easing of unemployment figures as well as better financing of the current account deficit. FDI inflow was $2.88 billion in 2004. Then in 2005 it jumped to $9.65 billion, meaning a 239 percent increase.

2006, however, set an all-time record with foreigners investing some $19.8 billion in Turkey. The sectors most preferred by foreign investors are banking, telecommunications, chemicals, real estate, ceramic, cement and porcelain. FDI inflows as a percentage of gross fixed capital formation were 13.6 percent in 2005, higher than world average of 9.4 percent. Moreover, FDI stock in Turkey in 2006 more than doubled the stock in 2000 and has become $60 billion. The share of FDI stock in GDP has reached 16 percent in 2006, which is still unsatisfactory when compared to world average of 22.7.

source: Today’s Zaman

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