ANKARA
Foreign direct investment in Turkey reached $12.14 billion in last year, the country's Economy Ministry said in a statement released on Monday.
Investment from abroad dropped 1.7 percent from the $12.7 billion invested in 2013. Turkey received $1.3 billion in foreign investment in December of last year.
The manufacturing sector benefited most from foreign direct investments, with $2.9 billion, followed by the financial sector with $1.53 billion.
The ministry data showed 63.4 percent of capital inflow – almost $5.51 billion – came from the European Union.
The data also indicates that 3,833 foreign-funded new companies were established in 2014, up from the 2,960 firms registered in 2013 -- an increase of 29 percent.
As of December 2014 a total of 41,528 companies operate in Turkey with international capital, with 24,606 of them located in Istanbul.
Antalya followed Istanbul with 4,416 companies.
The report said that of the total number of foreign-funded companies in Turkey, around 6,000, were German-funded and nearly 3,000 were financed by the U.K.
Most foreign companies were in the wholesale and retail markets in the country.
