Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Albania fell by 10.6% year-on-year in the second quarter, to Euro 221.3 million (Dollar 257.7 million), central bank data showed on Friday.

The net inflow of FDI decreased by 4.8% in the April-June period, as compared to the previous quarter, the central bank data showed.

The biggest volume of foreign investment in Albania in the second quarter of 2020, of Euro 73.5 million, originated in Switzerland, followed by the Netherlands with Euro 44.6 million and Turkey with Euro 27.6 million.

The sectors which attracted the biggest volume of investment by non-residents in the April-June period were electricity, gas, and water supply with Euro 89.6 million and financial and insurance activities with Euro 49.3 million.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), one of the priority energy projects for the European Union, part of the Southern Gas Corridor, is generating significant volumes of investment in Albania from work on offshore pipeline sections, as it has closed most of the onshore route.

This project raises Switzerland to the main foreign investor in Albania for the second quarter of this year.

In April-June period, central bank data show that Swiss investment inflows increase by 64% compared to the same period last year and 57% compared to the first quarter of this year.

For the first 6 months of 2020, the largest foreign investor in Albania was the Netherlands, with Euro 143 million, followed by Switzerland with Euro 119 million and Turkey with Euro 48 million.

The central bank announced that, "the ranking of foreign investors according to the stock of investment so far continues to be led by Switzerland, with Euro 1.58 billion, most of which have entered to finance the TAP pipeline". This project has increased Swiss investment by 16 times in the last five years.

The inflow of FDI in Albania increased by 5.7% year-on-year to 1.08 billion euro in 2019.