SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), April 3 (SeeNews) – Foreign investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina totalled 460.6 million marka ($251.1 million/235.5 million euro) in 2016, the country's Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) said on Monday, citing preliminary data.
Out of the total, Bosnia attracted 200 million marka in foreign investments in the fourth quarter alone, FIPA said in a statement referencing data from the country's central bank.
Foreign investors shied away from Bosnia in the second and third quarters of 2016 due to political instability and heightened war rhetoric, FIPA explained.
"In line with its capabilities, FIPA tried to retain foreign investors by explaining to them that the period of instability was transient and a precursor to the local elections," the agency said, adding that the catastrophic state of investments was reversed in the fourth quarter as the situation slowly stabilised.
FIPA noted that final data is expected to show total foreign investments of some 500 million marka last year.
According to latest available central bank data, foreign direct investments (FDI) in Bosnia and Herzegovina dropped to 80.5 million marka in the nine months through September from 223.4 million marka in the like period a year earlier.
Croatia was the biggest investor in Bosnia in the review period with FDI totalling 21.4 million marka, followed closely by the United Arab Emirates with 20.1 million marka, the figures issued by the central bank showed.
In 2015, FDI in Bosnia totalled 476.7 million marka, down 38.9% from a year earlier.
(1 euro=1.95583 marka)