Investment in Arab states shrinking

Foreign direct investment into Arab states dropped 8.0 percent last year with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia attracting close to half the total funds, a report says.

Arab states attracted foreign direct investment, or FDI, worth $43.9 billion in 2014 compared with $47.5 billion the previous year, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp says in its report.

The figure is still way below the $66.2 billion attracted in 2010 before the start of the Arab Spring uprisings in several countries.

UAE topped the list of countries receiving FDI with $10.1 billion — 23% of the total — followed by Saudi Arabia with $8 billion, or 18.3%. Egypt came third with $4.8 billion.

— AFP