Foreign investments in Belarus up 12.5% to $7.8bn in H1 2013
2013-08-13 14:47:58
In H1 2013 foreign investments into the production sector of Belarus (banks not included) amounted to $7.8 billion, which was up by 12.5% as against the first half of 2012, BelTA learnt from the National Statistics Committee.
Belarus’ main investors were Russia (47.4% of investment), the United Kingdom (24%), Cyprus (6.6%), the Netherlands (4.3%) and Austria (4.1%). The largest amounts of foreign investments were channeled into the trade sector (39.8% of total investments), transport (29.6%), and industry (18.8%).
Gross foreign direct investments (FDI) accounted for 82% of total foreign investment. Compared with H1 2012, the gross FDI wend up by 17.8%. The main instruments of raising foreign direct investment were debt instruments (75.8% of the total direct investment), the National Statistics Committee informed.
The largest amounts of gross FDI were invested in trade (44.3% of total direct investment), transport (35.6%), and industry (11.9%). Significant volumes of FDI came from Russia (51.6% of total direct investments). Some 27.4% came from residents of the United Kingdom, 5.7% from Cyprus and 2.7% from Ukraine.
In January-June Belarus received $1.4 billion in other foreign investment (not FDI), down 6.8% from the same period last year. They accounted for 17.9% of gross foreign investment.
In H1 2013, foreign investments were funneled into projects in Minsk (79.7%), Gomel Oblast received 6.4% of gross foreign investments and Minsk Oblast 5.5%.
The National Statistics Committee also presented the data on Belarus’ investments abroad. In H1 2013, Belarusian companies (except for banks) invested $3 billion abroad, which was down 4.7% as against H1 2012. The bulk of investments went to Russia (38.6% of all the funds invested abroad), the United Kingdom (25.3%), the Netherlands (10.9%), Ukraine (10.7%), Austria (4%), Kazakhstan (2.2%), Lithuania (2.1%), Germany (1.4%).
Most of Belarusian investments came from trading companies (50% of all investments), industrial enterprises (37.5%), and transport companies (10.3%).
FDI accounted for 78.6% of all funds invested in other countries, up 8.1 times over H1 2012. The bulk of FDI was invested in debt instruments (96.3%). This includes debts for goods, works and services owed to Belarusian resident companies. In H1 2012 this type of investments made up $2.2 billion, up 7.5% as against H1 a year earlier.
The bulk of FDI abroad was invested by trading companies (46.3%), industrial enterprises (40.5%), and transport companies (11.5%). The heaviest investments were made by companies of Minsk (97.4%), Minsk Oblast (13.2%) and Mogilev Oblast (6.9%).