Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ukraine grew 2.2% yoy
to USD 32.3 bln as of end-2018, or a net increase of USD 0.69 bln, the State
Statistics Service reported on Feb. 28. In addition, 2017 FDI growth was
revised to USD 0.38 bln while the 2014-2016 FDI drop was revised to USD 22.5
bln.
Gross 2018 FDI inflow amounted to USD 2.87 bln, while
the outflow was USD 0.97 bln. The agency wrote off USD 1.22 bln from inflows
due to exchange rate fluctuations, omissions, and changes in classification. In
2017, gross FDI inflow amounted to USD 2.51 bln, while the outflow was USD 0.76
bln.
In 2018, the Netherlands (USD 1.2 bln), Cyprus (USD
0.5 bln), and Russian Federation (USD 0.5 bln) were the leading sources of
investment to Ukraine in 2018. The top destinations were the finance (USD 1.2
bln), trade (USD 0.6 bln), and real estate (USD 0.4 bln) sectors.
Evgeniya Akhtyrko: Investment
inflow only slightly improved in 2018, with a long way left to cover the losses
of 2014-2016. Unfortunately, FDI won’t improve much in 2019 given the
heightened political risks related to the presidential and parliamentary
elections scheduled for this year. We expect gross FDI inflow this year will be
close to last year’s result of USD 2.9 bln.