Egypt’s FDI marks $6.6B in 9 months: official report

CAIRO – 17 August 2017: Net foreign direct investment (FD) pumped into Egypt increased to $6.6 billion in the first nine months of fiscal year 2016/17, up from $5.9 billion in the same month last year, Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr said Thursday.

In the monthly bulletin, Nasr said local investments recorded LE 2.4 billion ($134 million) in July, surging 58 percent year-on-year.

Egypt ranked the second top Arab receipt of FDI, acquiring 27 percent of investments, coming after the United Arab Emirates, Nasr added, citing the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee’s 2017 report.

The number of established and expanded companies in July reached 1,605 companies, marking a 56 percent increase, up from 1,026 companies in the corresponding month in 2016.

Issued capitals of companies hiked 25.2 percent to reach LE 5.4 billion, compared to LE 4.3 billion in the same month last year, while paid capital soared 160 percent to reach LE 502 million, up from LE 193 million in July 2016.

In the beginning of 2017, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) issued 2,304 approvals for establishing new companies and increasing capitals.

The approvals valued LE 43.5 billion ($2.4 billion) in capital, where LE 21.5 billion of them are issued capital, recording 35 percent year-on-year increase.