In 2018, foreign direct investment (FDI) in funds of domestic origin amounted to USD 500 million. This is according to the assessment by the National Bank of Ukraine of the so-called round-tripping investments – the funds previously siphoned off abroad by Ukrainian businesses and then returned as FDI.
The said amount accounts for 20.6% of total FDIs into Ukraine in 2018. Such transactions of Ukrainian businesses were mostly executed through Cyprus, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Overall, residents’ funds that were siphoned off abroad and then returned to Ukraine amounted to USD 8.4 billion or 22% of the total FDIs in 2010–2018.
As previously reported, the largest round-tripping investments were recorded in 2010–2013, accounting for roughly one third of the total FDIs.
In 2014–2015, following the political changes and the outbreak of military actions, such transactions resulted in the outflow of funds from Ukraine. In 2016–2018, the net inflows under such transactions gradually recovered.
The data on round-tripping investments are published by the National Bank of Ukraine annually.
For more details on the data review methodology and findings, please see the presentation Hindsight Analysis of the Data on Foreign Direct Investment Whose Ultimate Investor Is a Resident (Round Tripping) for 2010–2018.
For reference: At present, only a few countries are publishing regular statistics on the FDIs whose ultimate investor is a resident. Such investment is typical for both developing and advanced economies, albeit to a lesser extent for the latter.