The pace of foreign investments exiting the Egyptian market has slowed down by 12% during the first quarter of 2015 to hit $1.53 billion against $1.74 billion in the same period of last year, the Central Bank of Egypt said.

In a monthly report, the CBE said the size of incoming foreign investments in the described period registered a high record of 207%, reaching $2.94 billion, against the previous quarter and 190% versus the first quarter of 2014.

The report attributed the growth to the rise in UK and Arab investments, especially the UAE.

European Union investments in Egypt recorded $2.03 billion in the three-month period against $1.6 billion in the parallel period of 2014, it said.

UK investments were the largest ($1.68 billion), followed by Germany ($59.7 million, a margin rise than last year by $3.5 million).

French, Italian, Dutch and Belgian investments were relatively lower than the first quarter of 2014, it added.

The report noted that investments from the US declined to $508 million against $536.6 million last year.

Arab investments, meanwhile, jumped from $386.6 million in the first quarter of 2014 to $1.34 billion in 2015 thanks to UAE investments, which hiked from $148.3 million in the described period of 2014 to $843.5 million in 2015.

In the reported period, Kuwaiti investments rose to $50.1 million against $21.1 last year, while Qatar’s from $23.5 million to $35.4 million.

Saudi investments reported a record growth from $124 million to $351.1 million in the same period.