Georgia reaps benefits of foreign investments

Millions of foreign dollars is being invested in Georgia and is helping boost the country’s economy.

In the first three months of this year, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) reached $260 million, which was a 15 percent improvement on the same period of last year, reported state statistics office Geostat.

Furthermore, FDI jumped 20 percent from preliminary data of the last three months of 2013.

The total inflow amounted to $398 million, Geostat data revealed.

The financial sector, manufacturing and transport sector and communication sector earned the highest FDI, which composed nearly 84 percent of the total figure generated in the Quarter 1 figures, reaching $89 million, $46 million and $44 million respectively.

The country’s mining sector attracted $15 million, followed by real estate ($13 million), construction ($6 million) and energy ($5 million).

The Netherlands was the leading investor country and spent $73 million last year, which was 28 percent of the total FDI. This was followed by Azerbaijan with $47 million (18 percent) then the United Kingdom with $35 million (13 percent).

Turkey invested $30 million in Georgia in the first three months of this year, Russia spent $20 million and Saudi Arabia invested $18 million. Other major investment countries were the United States with $18 million and Luxembourg with $11 million.

* All currencies are valued in USD