The flow of foreign investments amounted to 1,491.9 million Tunisian dinars (MTD) to the end of September 2013, up 15.3 % compared to 2012 (9 months) and 20.5 % compared to 2011, according to the latest statistics published by the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA).
This flow is, however, still 12.17% below its level in the same period of 2010 (1,698.8 MTD).
FIPA said that “foreign direct investment (FDI) worth 1,369.9 MD, have evolved sequentially from 12.1 % and 17 % compared to the same period of 2012 and 2011.”
In terms of portfolio investments (122 MTD), they were up 68.9 % compared to the year 2012 and 80.9 % compared to 2011.
According to the same source, the new investments have led to the “creation of 125 new businesses against 90 during the same period of 2012 and 318 expansion projects against 147 the previous year.”
Regarding employment, 4,178 new jobs have been created with a contribution of 32% (1,334 jobs) of the total employment in the sector of textiles and clothing.
The distribution of FDI shows that investments in energy (820 MTD in the nine months of 2013) posted increases of 18.8% and 7.9% compared to 2012 and 2011.
Investments in manufacturing industries totaled 355.6 MTD, rising 4.6% compared to 2012 and 31.3 % compared to 2011, with the creation of 3,898 jobs.
The agriculture sector, meanwhile, has continued its upward trend (9.9 MTD in the first nine months of 2013), by posting respective increases of 154.5 % and 331.6 % compared to the same period of 2012 and 2011.
