Foreign direct investments down by 35.5% in 2018 in Georgia

Georgia’s National Statistics Office (Geostat) has released the adjusted statistics of 2018, according to which, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Georgia amounted to $1 265.2 million in 2018 down 35.5 percent from 2017 and up 2.7 percent from the preliminary data of 2018.

The agency reports that the main reasons why FDI went down are the completion of a pipeline project, transferring of ownership in some companies from non-resident to resident units, providing adjusted profit-loss data from companies and reduction in liabilities to non-resident direct investors.

Since 2012, the FDI statistics look as follows:
2012 – $ 1048.2 million
2013 – $ 1039.2 million
2014 – $ 1837.0 million
2015 – $ 1729.1 million
2016 – $ 1652.3 million
2017 – $ 1962.6 million
2018 - $1265.2 million
Share of FDI by three major economic sectors reached 48.0 percent in 2018. The largest share of FDI was allocated in the financial sector, totaling $270.7 million. The construction sector was the second with USD 173.0 million, followed by the transports and communications with $163.0 million.

In addition, the manufacturing sector has 11.1% of FDI, followed by real estate – 10.4%, energy sector – 9.5%, hotel, and restaurants – 6.2% and mining 4.9%.

Top countries who invested in Georgia are: Azerbaijan – 19.5%, the Netherlands – 16.5%, the United Kingdom – 14.1%, the United States – 8.1%, China – 6%, Czech Republic – 5.9%, Panama – 5.9%, Russia – 5.5%, Luxembourg – 4.0% and Turkey – 3.9%.

In order to improve the data quality, based on the recommendations and methodologies provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Geostat launched the process of reclassification the loans assessed as being between affiliated entities from other investment to direct investment. As a result, FDI data have been revised for 2007-2018.