Geneva - Morocco has attracted a total of 3.5 billion USD in foreign direct investments in 2013, consolidating its rank as North Africa's largest FDI recipient at a time capital flow is slowing down, said a UN agency.
"Persistent political and social tensions continued to subdue flows to North Africa, where only Morocco registered solid growth of 24% to US$3.5 billion", says a report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), presented in Geneva.
The UNCTAD's "Global Investment trends monitor" notes that " FDI inflows to Africa rose by 6.8% to an estimated US$ 56.3 billion," ascribing this to "the strong performance of Southern African countries, including South Africa and Mozambique that experienced record inflows of more than US$10 billion and US$7 billion, respectively, as well as lower levels of divestment in Angola compared to previous years."
It argues that "there are signs that investors are ready to return to the region, with many big cross-border deals targeting Egypt. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria's lackluster performance (US$ 5.5 billion) is the result of foreign TNCs' retreat from the oil industry."
Worldwide, UNCTAD forecasts that "FDI flows will rise gradually in 2014 and 2015 , to US$ 1.6 trillion and US$ 1.8 trillion respectively, as global economic growth gains momentum which may prompt investors to turn their cash holdings into new investments."
"However, uneven levels of growth, fragility and unpredictability in a number of economies and risks related to the tapering of quantitative easing could dampen the FDI recovery", the report concludes.