Foreign investment in Tunisia reached, $280 million in the first four months of 2019, against $302 million during the same period in 2018, down by $22 million, according to preliminary statistics provided by the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA).
In dinars, the foreign investment flows to Tunisia edged up 15.7% to 851.1 million dinars against 727.2 million dinars in the same period last year.
The foreign investment is divided between portfolio investment and foreign direct investment (FDI), which reached $845.9 million during this period against $727.2 million during the same period in 2018.
The portfolio investments are estimated at 5.2 MD, against 8.3 MD in 2018, down 37.3%.
This decline is due to the decrease in the value of the dinar against the euro and the dollar, according to the FIPA.
The foreign direct investment recorded a 16.3% rise, reaching 845.9 MD during the first four months of 2018 against 727.2 MD during the same period in 2018.
In dinars, the foreign investment in the manufacturing sector doubled to 411.7 million dinars at the end of April 2019 compared with 253.9 million dinars in the same period last year, up 62%.
The manufacturing industry (textiles and clothing, cooking, footwear and the mechanical, electrical and chemical industries) is one of the sectors attracting the most foreign investment.
The energy sector also registered a slight improvement of 7% in terms of foreign investments, from 344 million dinars in April 2018 to 368.4 in April 2019.
However, foreign investment in the services and agriculture sectors fell significantly, to 4.6 million dinars and 1.1 million dinars, respectively.
Tunisia seeks to attract nearly 3,000 million dinars of foreign investment by the end of 2019, against 2,800 million dinars in 2018.
