Turkey’s foreign investment rises to $1.8 bln in January

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

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Turkey received foreign direct investment worth $1.8 billion in January, Turkey’s Economy Ministry said in a statement late March 23.

The energy sector was the largest recipient of international capital during the month with $735 million.
Foreign investment to the county increased by 44 percent in the first month of 2015 compared with the same month in the previous year, said the statement.

A total of 25 percent of international investment was from EU countries, a decrease of 76 percent year-on-year. More than $420 million in investments came from Asian countries, such as China and Malaysia.

There were 175 new, foreign-funded companies established in the first month of the year, down from 410 in the same month of 2014.

A total of 41,699 companies were operating in Turkey with international capital as of January 2015, with 24,612 of them operating in Turkey’s largest province, Istanbul, the ministry said.

Ankara hosts 2,514 companies, while the country’s largest sea resort of Antalya is home to 4,444 foreign companies.

The report also said that of the total number of foreign-funded companies in Turkey, 6,054 were German-funded and 2,774 were financed by the United Kingdom.

Turkey received a total of $12.4 billion in foreign direct investment in 2014, a decrease of 1.7 percent compared with $12.7 billion in 2013.