The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Industrial Economic Growth in Belarus

This paper analyses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic performance using aggregated panel data from Belarusian industry over the 2002 to 2009 period. The paper doesn't suggest any overall positive or negative effect of FDI on economic performance. One of the findings of the paper is, however, that there is a very diverse impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) at the industrial level. The obtained results show that the foreign capital distribution across sectors of the economy determines FDI impact on economic performance. The results revealed both the positive impact of FDI (in the construction industry, IT, real estate, machinery, food and fuel industries) and the negative (on the black metallurgical, construction material, forestry, communications and culture/arts industries).