Foreign Investment in Arab States Dropped 8% Last Year

Foreign direct investment into Arab states dropped 8.0 percent last year with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia accounting for close to half the total fall, a report said Sunday.

Arab states attracted FDI worth $43.9 billion (40 billion euros) in 2014 compared with $47.5 billion the previous year, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp said 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 losses with $10.1 billion -- 23 percent of the regional total -- followed by Saudi Arabia with $8 billion, or 18.3 percent. Egypt came third with $4.8 billion.

The report covered 20 out of the 22 Arab League states, excluding war-torn Syria and tiny Comoros. FDI dropped in 15 of them.  

The six energy-rich states of the Gulf Cooperation Council drew in the most investment, accounting for half of the Arab world's total FDI, according to the report. 

Outflows of Arab investments into other countries dropped 10 percent to $33.4 billion, with Kuwait topping the list with $13 billion or 39.2 percent of the total, the report said.