According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s World Investment Report 2017, global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows declined by 1.55% from $1.77 trillion in 2015 to $1.75 trillion in 2016.
FDI inflows to developing countries registered an even higher downturn of 14% year-on-year (y-o-y) to $646 billion. Meanwhile, inflows to developed economies, which represent 59% of total FDI inflows, increased by 5% annually for the second consecutive year to $1 trillion. Although FDIs to Europe were down, the inflows to North America and other developed economies compensated for the decrease. FDI outflows from developed economies also remained weak and declined by an annual 11% to $1 trillion mainly due to the decline in investments made by European Multinational Enterprises.
In West Asia, low oil prices and political instability negatively impacted FDI inflows which dropped by a yearly 2% to $28 billion. In Lebanon, FDI inflows grew from $2.35B in 2015 to $2.56B in 2016.
| In millions of USD | FDI Inflows | FDI Outflows | ||
| 2015 | 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | |
| West Asia | 28,359 | 27,797 | 38,000 | 30,844 |
| Bahrain | (797) | 282 | 497 | 170 |
| Iraq | (7,752) | (5,911) | 148 | 304 |
| Jordan | 1,600 | 1,539 | 1 | 3 |
| Kuwait | 293 | 275 | 5,407 | (6,258) |
| Lebanon | 2,353 | 2,564 | 662 | 773 |
| Oman | (2,692) | 142 | 294 | 862 |
| Qatar | 1,071 | 774 | 4,023 | 7,902 |
| Saudi Arabia | 8,141 | 7,453 | 5,390 | 8,359 |
| State of Palestine | 103 | 269 | 73 | 114 |
| Turkey | 17,259 | 11,987 | 4,807 | 2,869 |
| UAE | 8,795 | 8,986 | 16,692 | 15,711 |
| Yemen | (15) | (561) | 6 | 35 |
Source: UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2017