Angola: Oil sector leads foreign direct investment in 3Q 2018

The United States, France, China, Italy and the United Kingdom were the main foreign investors in the oil sector in Angola in the third quarter of 2018, according to figures released by the National Bank of Angola.

The same figures show that for the non-oil sector the main foreign investors were companies from Belgium, South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and Hong Kong.

The oil sector attracted 84.2% of all foreign direct investment in the period, US$1.904 billion versus US$1.419 million in the same period of 2017, or an increase of 34.16%.

In this sector, the United States was the biggest investor with a direct investment of US$425.87 million (US$242.61 million in the same period of 2017), with French companies investing US$367.70 million (US$311.18 million) and China (US$199.52 million).

The non-oil sector in the third quarter of 2018 saw foreign direct investment of US$300.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 478.22%.

In the period, Angola did not apply a single dollar in foreign direct investment and focused on recovering the US$900,000 of the investment expenses already incurred.

An increase in deposits by Angolans in foreign financial institutions drove the “other investments” account to end the third quarter of 2018 with a positive balance of US$3.091 billion, against US$1.256 billion in the same period of 2017. (source: Macauhub)