The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were ranked the first three, respectively, in the Arab world in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for 2021, with investments topping $45 billion.
FDI inflows to Arab countries, which rose by 42% in 2021, amounted to about $53 billion, 6.3% of which represented the total inflows to developing countries and 3.3% of the total global inflows that stood at about $1.58 trillion.
Asharq Al-Awsat obtained a copy of an annual report released by the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman) that studied the volume of FDI in the region.
It showed that the first five countries accounted for more than 96% of the total inflows.
The UAE topped the list by attracting $20.7 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia with $19.3 billion, then Egypt with $5.1 billion.
Oman came fourth with $3.6 billion, while Morocco was fifth with $2.2 billion.
Data released in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2022 indicated that FDI balances received by Arab countries increased in late 2021 by about $53 billion, representing 5.4% compared to 2020, from $958 billion dollars to more than one trillion dollars in 2021.
The first three countries accounted for about 56.5% of the total cumulative balances.
Saudi Arabia topped the Arab ranking in cumulative balances inflows with $261 billion and a share of 26% of the Arab total FDI inflows, followed by the UAE with a value of $171.6 billion and a 17% share, then Egypt with a value of $137.5 billion and 13.6% share.
Meanwhile, FDI outflows from Arab countries to various world countries rose by 46% to $52 billion.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE contributed to about 90% of these outflows, with shares amounting to 46.1% and 43.5%, respectively. Kuwait came third with 7%.
In this context, FDI balances issued by Arab countries increased by 10.2% to $543.4 billion by late 2021. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar accounted for 76.5% of the total balances, with shares amounting to 39.6%, 27.9% and 8.8%, respectively, followed by Kuwait with a 6.6% share.
In terms of cross-border merger and acquisition deals that the Arab countries concluded in 2021, the report showed that the value of sales deals in 12 Arab countries amounted to about $30 billion, with a 4.1% share of the global total value of $728 billion.
These deals were mainly focused in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE with 81.5%, 13.6% and 5.1%, respectively.
The value of purchase deals for 12 Arab countries amounted to more than seven billion dollars, to which the UAE contributed with $6.1 billion and an 86.6% share of the total deals in the Arab region.
