14 Feb 2017 15:26

Foreign investment in Belarus shrinks by a quarter in 2016

MINSK. Feb 14 (Interfax) - Foreign investment in the Belarus economy shrank 24.2% in 2016 to $8.6 billion, the National Statistics Committee said.

Foreign investment reached $11.344 billion in 2015.

The main investors last year were Russian companies, which provided 51.5% of incoming investment, followed by companies from Britain (17.1%) and Cyprus (7.3%).

Foreign direct investment into the real sector of the Belarusian economy came to $6.9 billion or 80.9% of overall investment.

Investment by Belarus in other countries fell 24.1% last year to $3.9 billion. Belarusian companies invested 56.1% of this in Russia, 22.8% in Ukraine and 10% in Britain.

Direct investments by Belarusian companies abroad accounted for 91.2% of the total.