Foreign investors are trembling over Turkey
Foreign direct investments in Turkey dropped dramatically in September despite some encouraging signals from European and American investors earlier in the year.
The European Union and the United States topped the list for foreign direct investments (FDI) in Turkey in July and August, respectively, a welcome surprise for Turkey after Asian countries led the list earlier in the year. Investor sentiment, however, seems to have soured in September, with official figures indicating a sharp decline.
According to Economy Ministry statistics, FDI stood at $1.15 billion in May, $1.1 billion in June, $3.38 billion in July and $1.99 billion in August. In September, however, foreign investors put only $791 million into the country.
The figures include foreign purchases of real estate. Excluding those purchases, FDI from Asian countries topped the list in May and June with $384 million and $390 million respectively, before declining to $88 million in July, $53 million in August and $34 million in September.
In July, the surprise came from EU countries, whose entrepreneurs invested $2.9 billion in Turkey, making the bulk of the total of $3.06 billion, excluding real estate buys. Monthly FDI from the EU had ranged between $170 million and $439 million during the first half of the year, which makes the $2.9 billion figure for July even more striking.
