Egypt’s FDI jumps as Qatari project offsets capital flight

Egypt’s foreign direct investment (FDI) rose to one of its highest levels of recent years after the arrival of the first cash payment from Qatar relating to a $29 billion real estate project.

Qatari Diar, the real estate arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, agreed in late 2025 to transform nearly 4,900 acres (20 million square metres) in the Alam Al-Roum area, on Egypt’s North Mediterranean coast. Over the next 15 years it would become an international tourism, residential and commercial centre.

Egypt reported later that it received an initial $3.5 billion in cash from the Qatari company to secure the land rights for the project.

The Qatari payment boosted Egypt’s net FDI flow to about $13 billion between July 2025 and March 2026, compared to about $9 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year, the central bank of Egypt said.

This helped to offset capital outflows of about $9.5 billion from the Egyptian stock market as a result of the Iran war, the report said.

Despite an increase of nearly $10 billion in the trade deficit as a result of higher imports of crude, gas and other products, Egypt’s balance of payment deficit edged down to about $1.82 billion during the first nine months of 2025-2026 from nearly $1.87 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year, the central bank said.

The improvement was helped by a 32 percent rise in remittances to about $35 billion, an increase of 22 percent in Suez Canal fees to $3.2 billion and a 15 percent growth in tourism revenues to about $14.5 billion, it added.

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