Foreign investment in Israel jumped 30% in two years, according to a new report from the Central Bureau of Statistics, released Sunday.
The report states that foreign investments in Israel totaled $129.1 billion for 2017, a 20.2% increase compared to 2016 and 30% higher than 2015, which saw foreign investment of under $100 billion.
The CBS figures covered investments by foreign residents or companies who bought more than a 10% stock share in Israeli companies.
In 2017, 60.4% of foreign investment went to the fields of trade and services. The remaining investment was divided between high-tech (32.6%); industry (28.3%); and advanced technologies (15.8%).
The greatest amount of investment by foreign residents came from the U.S. ($21.1 billion), followed by the Netherlands, the Cayman Islands, Canada, China, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Switzerland.
Israelis abroad were also investing more outside of Israel. In 2017, Israelis abroad put $100.3 billion into foreign ventures, more than 65% of which went into industry. Other prominent investment targets included companies in the oil, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors. The lion's share of investment from Israelis abroad went to Europe, which received over 63% of the investments.
