Turkey's share of foreign direct investment into emerging markets has slumped to the same levels as almost two decades ago, the World Bank has said, pointing to lagging regulatory reforms as a possible explanation.
The World Bank's Country Director Martin Raiser said at the launch of a new report in Ankara on Tuesday that Turkey had failed to attract foreign capital since the global financial crisis, after peaking in 2007 when it received a 16 percent share of emerging market FDI.
"Turkey today in terms of its relative market share of global FDI is where it was back in 1988," Raiser said, according to a recording of the event provided by the World Bank.
A graph accompanying his presentation showed the 2012 share for Turkey of foreign direct investment into emerging markets at below 6 percent. Turkish central bank figures show FDI reaching $19.9 bln in 2007, dropping back to $9.2 billion in 2013.
Concern over rule of law has mounted in Turkey in recent months in the wake of a corruption probe that erupted in December 2013, touching the inner circle of then prime minister and now President Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan branded the scandal a coup attempt and responded by removing thousands of police, judges and prosecutors from their posts, a move that alarmed Western partners.