FDI in Turkey was $2.7 billion in first two months of year: Ministry

Turkey received a total of $2.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in January and February, a decrease of 2.5 percent compared with same period last year.

The country received $954 million in February and $1.757 billion in January, according to data released by the Turkish Economy Ministry on April 20.

The ministry said the energy sector emerged as the largest recipient of international capital, with $921 million during the period.

A total of 70 percent of FDI was from EU countries, a decrease of 12 percent compared with 81.3 percent in the same period of 2014.

The data indicated 325 new foreign-funded companies were established in the first two months of the year, down from the 580 companies registered in the same period last year.

A total of 42,002 companies were operating in Turkey with international capital as of February 2015, with 24,773 of them operating in Istanbul, the ministry said.

Turkey's capital Ankara hosted 2,526 companies and the country's largest sea resort of Antalya was home to 4,470 foreign companies, the ministry said.

The report also said that of the total number of foreign-funded companies in Turkey, 6,076 were German-funded and 2,784 were financed from the U.K.

Most foreign companies were in the wholesale and retail markets in the country.

FDI in Turkey reached $12.14 billion in 2014, a drop of 1.7 percent from the $12.7 billion invested in 2013.

The manufacturing sector benefited the most from FDI with $2.9 billion, followed by the financial sector with $1.53 billion.