In a development that reflects some relative improvement, Kuwait ranked 14th in the Arab world in terms of the flow of foreign direct investments during 2021, according to the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman), reports Al- Seyassah daily. In a report issued this week, it confirmed that, “Kuwait attracted about KD 198 million during last year, a growth rate of 239.8 percent, compared to 2020, which witnessed the exit of investments of about KD 142 million”.

Despite the modest share of Kuwait in the total inflows to the Arab countries, which amounted to 0.4 percent, Dhaman clarified in its annual monitoring that Kuwait ranked third with seven percent of the total inflows issued by Arab countries in the year 2021. With regard to foreign direct investment balances issued by Arab countries, it revealed that Kuwait came in fourth place with a share of 6.7 percent. It also acquired 13.6 percent of the volume of crossborder merger and acquisition deals that the Arab countries witnessed during 2021.

Dhaman highlighted that foreign direct investment flows from Arab countries to the world rose at a rate of 46 percent to $ 52 billion, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE contributing about 90 percent of those flows, with shares of 46.1 percent and 43.5 percent respectively. It affirmed significant increases in foreign direct investment inflows to the Arab countries by 42 percent, to reach about $53 billion in 2021, and to represent its share of 6.3 percent of the total incoming flows to developing countries and 3.3 percent of the total global flows amounting to about $ 1.58 trillion./AT