Beirut, September 18: Foreign investment in Lebanon rose 32 percent in 2008 with oil-rich Saudi Arabia topping the list of investors, a UN official said Thursday.
“Lebanon witnessed a 32 percent increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2008, which amounts to 3.6 billion dollars (2.4 billion euros), mainly in the real estate sector,” said Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) official Khaled Hussein.
He was speaking at the launch in Beirut of the UN Conference on Trade and Development 2009 World Investment Report.
Arab states accounted for 90 percent of FDI in Lebanon, with 63 percent from Saudi Arabia alone, Hussein added.
A separate UN report released by ESCWA this week said overall FDI in 14 Arab countries fell from 64 billion dollars (44 billion euros) in 2007 to around 60 billion dollars (41 billion euros) in 2008.
However five ESCWA states — Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan and Syria — saw an increase in FDI flows in 2008, it said.
ESCWA also covers Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the Palestinian territories.
The increase in investment in the tiny Mediterranean country comes despite a shaky political situation that saw Lebanon come close to civil war last year following bloody sectarian clashes.
Lebanon has also largely weathered the global economic crisis thanks, in part, to its solid banking sector
—Agencies