Libya: Foreign direct investment, net outflows (% of GDP)

Key figures

What the numbers say

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 4.99 percentage points in 2007 and the biggest yearly fall was 4.87 percentage points in 2009. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains less than 1% of the movement over 8 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2025, Libya had the 102nd highest value of the 163 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Libya in the 2025 ranking

• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 99th of 163: 0.19%
• Romania — 100th of 163: 0.19%
• Equatorial Guinea — 101st of 163: 0.17%
• Iraq — 103rd of 163: 0.17%
• Jordan — 104th of 163: 0.16%
• Kazakhstan — 105th of 163: 0.15%

What this measures

Foreign direct investment refers to direct investment equity flows in an economy. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, and other capital. Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of an enterprise that is resident in another economy. Ownership of 10 percent or more of the ordinary shares of voting stock is the criterion for determining the existence of a direct investment relationship. This series shows net outflows of investment from the reporting economy to the rest of the world, and is divided by GDP.

Limitations: FDI data do not give a complete picture of international investment in an economy. Balance of payments data on FDI do not include capital raised locally, an important source of investment financing in some developing countries. In addition, FDI data omit nonequity cross-border transactions such as intra-unit flows of goods and services. The volume of global private financial flows reported by the World Bank generally differs from that reported by other sources because of differences in sources, classification of economies, and method used to adjust and disaggregate reported information.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 52 values

Foreign direct investment, net outflows (% of GDP) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 0.22% (2021)
• Algeria — 0.02% (2025)
• Bahrain — 1.12% (2025)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 0.19% (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 0.03% (2025)
• Iraq — 0.17% (2025)
• Israel — 2.41% (2025)
• Jordan — 0.16% (2025)
• Kuwait — 1.9% (2025)
• Lebanon

More economic policy & debt data for Libya

• Total reserves, including gold (current US$) — US$104.66 billion (2025)
• Total reserves, excluding gold (current US$) — US$84.06 billion (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$48.1 billion (2025)
• GDP (current LCU) — 255.17 billion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$64.4 billion (2025)
• GDP (constant LCU) — 96.66 billion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$6,449 (2025)
• GDP per capita (current LCU) — 34,212 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) — US$8,634 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant LCU) — 12,960 (2025)
• GNI (current US$) — US$49.92 billion (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Libya's foreign direct investment, net outflows (% of GDP)?

0.17% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1972?

It is up 0.14 percentage points from 0.03% in 1972. The highest value was 6.79% in 2008 and the lowest -1.56% in 1993.

How does Libya rank?

102nd highest of 163 economies with data for 2025.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments database, International Monetary Fund (IMF), note: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments database, supplemented by data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and official national sources.; UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Official….

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator BM.KLT.DINV.WD.GD.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments database, International Monetary Fund (IMF), note: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments database, supplemented by data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and official national sources.; UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Official… Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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