Saudi Arabia tops foreign investment flows at $28bn

Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which includes the Gulf region, dropped by 15 percent last year, according to a new report.

FDI fell to $57bn from the $67bn in 2009, according to the World Investment Report 2011.

Apart for Oman and Lebanon, the drop affected all ESCWA countries, Abulgasim Abdullah, chief of financing for development section at ESCWA said in the report, which is published each year by UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Abdullah said that Saudi Arabia still received the most FDI inflows in 2010, totalling $28bn.

Egypt was second with $6bn while Qatar ranked third with $5.5bn, the report said.

Lebanon maintained fourth place with a slight increase from $4.8bn in 2009 to $5bn in 2010, while the UAE completed the top five places with FDI hitting about $4bn.

FDI flows from the ESCWA region retracted by 51 percent between 2009 and 2010, reaching $12.5bn.

Global foreign direct investment rose by five percent last year and should hit pre-crisis levels in 2011, the report added.

FDI totalled $1.24 trillion in 2010 and should hit $1.4-1.6 trillion this year, advancing to $1.7 trillion in 2012 and $1.9 trillion in 2013.