Baku, Azerbaijan, April 15
Trend:
The overall decline in gross inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2018 for these countries was 12.2 percent, Trend reports with reference to the survey of ranking.kz.
In 2018, the gross inflow of foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan amounted to $24.3 billion, which is 15.8 percent more than the year before ($21 billion).
In 2016, after the crisis of 2015, in which FDI fell by as much as 35.5 percent, investment flows began to form a positive trend. Over the past three years, FDI increased by 58 percent.
However, FDI to Kazakhstan still maintains a negative trend in the world: in 2018, global investment flows decreased by 18.4 percent to $1.2 trillion.
The rapid decline in global investment over the past three years reflects the global investor suspicion of the economies of countries.
The expectations of the global economic crisis in the coming years may be one of the reasons of it.
The key investors in the national economy of Kazakhstan are traditionally the Netherlands - $7.3 billion (+23.8 percent), The US - $5.3 billion (+44.7 percent) and Switzerland - $2.5 billion (−14.3 percent).
The top 10 investor countries form 89.5 percent ($21.7 billion) of all foreign investment. Among them, Russia’s closest neighbor (4th place in the ranking) invested $1.5 billion in the economy of Kazakhstan in 2018, increasing investment activity for the year by 22.2 percent.
European partners (EU countries) in 2018 invested $11.6 billion (+15.8 percent) in the economy of Kazakhstan.
Investments from the EU countries are strategic for the national economy, as their share is 48 percent.
In 2018, Kazakhstan and the EU organized 5 joint projects in an amount exceeding $ 350 million.
However, almost half of the countries of the European Union reduced investment flows to Kazakhstan.
Finland reduced FDI to Kazakhstan immediately by 63.3 percent, the volume for the year decreased from $30.1 million to $11 million.
Belgium, a strategic partner, weakened investment flows by 1.9 percent, which in money terms amounted to $19.9 million.
Austria completely removed capital from the economy of Kazakhstan in the amount of $14 million, while invested only $3.2 million.
Nonetheless, Austrian investors invested $86.9 million in the national economy a year earlier.
In general, 12 EU countries over the past year reduced investment flows to Kazakhstan by 12.2 percent.
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