Foreign investment inflows
dropped 20 percent last year

Funds were directed to the services sector

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows are estimated to have plummeted by 20 percent to $2.1 billion in 2019, according to the ‘World Investment Report’ of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

This compares with a five percent increase realized in 2018.The figures for both 2018 and 2019 are estimates.


“[The decline in investment inflows was] largely due to political instability, macroeconomic imbalances, and a foreign currency crisis,” the UNCTAD said in the report.

It said that these investments were directed to the services sector, and that nearly one-third came from other countries in West Asia.

FDI flows out of Lebanon are projected to have plunged 28 percent to $438 million last year.


FDI is one of the major components of the balance of payments which recorded a deficit of $4.3 billion in 2019 compared with a deficit of $4.8 billion in the previous year.