Wholesale, retail trade sector lures most foreign investments
ISTANBUL
The wholesale and retail sale sector had the largest share in total equity capital inflows in October at 25 percent or $140 million, showed a report by the International Investors’ Association (YASED).
The automotive and ICT (information and communication services) ranked second and third at 17 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
In October, Türkiye recorded $417 million Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows via equity capital, $188 million through real estate sales to foreign nationals, and $170 million through debt instruments.
The breakdown of the data showed that Germany had the largest share with 23 percent, followed by the Netherlands with 16 percent, the United Kingdom with 15 percent, the U.S. with 15 percent and Azerbaijan with 7 percent.
“Divestment decreased the overall FDI inflows by $5 million. Consequently, Türkiye’s total FDI inflow totaled $770 million in October,” said YASED.
The FDI inflows for the first ten months of 2024 amounted to $8.5 billion, marking a 1 percent decrease compared to the same period last year.
Rising financing costs, geopolitical tensions, and economic uncertainty caused declines across all investment types, including greenfield projects, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and international project financing, said the association.
Infrastructure and renewable energy projects were especially hard hit, it added.
However, certain value chain-critical sectors, such as electronics and automotive, exhibited limited resilience, according to YASED.
Since 2002, Türkiye has attracted a total of $272 billion in FDI.
European Union countries, which had a share of 58 percent in FDI flows to Türkiye during the 2002-2023 period, constituted 49 percent of FDI flows to Türkiye in October.
Separate data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed that the number of foreign controlled enterprises increased from 7,424 in 2021 to 8,134 in 2022.
The shares of these enterprises in total turnover declined from 12.9 percent to 12.7 percent.
In the manufacture of tobacco products, foreign-controlled companies accounted for 92.3 percent of turnover.
“The second activity with the highest turnover share of foreign controlled enterprises was insurance, reinsurance and pension funds with 40.2 percent,” said TÜİK.
This was 39.7 percent in publishing, 39.4 percent in activities supporting mining activities and 39.4 percent in the manufacture of motor vehicles and trailers.
