EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT UTILIZATION IN PRIORITY SECTORS OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

Abstract

The relevance of this study is determined by the need to substantiate effective mechanisms for allocating and managing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the national economy of Ukraine under the conditions of martial law and the subsequent post-war reconstruction, when the volume of available investment resources is limited and their productive distribution across priority sectors becomes a decisive factor of economic recovery, structural modernization and long-term competitiveness. Under such circumstances, a purely quantitative assessment of FDI inflows is no longer sufficient, and the scientific and practical task of measuring how efficiently the attracted foreign capital is actually used within particular sectors of the economy acquires strategic importance for shaping evidence-based investment policy. The aim of the article is to develop and approbate a methodological approach to evaluating the efficiency of FDI utilization in the priority sectors of Ukraine's national economy and to identify sectoral disparities that should guide the priorities of state investment policy during the period of post-war transformation.The research employs a system approach, comparative and structural-functional analysis, statistical analysis of investment dynamics for 2019-2025, and the method of integral index construction based on linear normalization and additive convolution of partial indicators, including capital productivity, labor productivity, export growth attributable to foreign investment, and the level of production localization. Graphical and tabular methods were used to visualize the dynamics and sectoral structure of investment flows.It was established that the inflow of FDI into Ukraine's economy has demonstrated pronounced volatility over 2019-2025, driven successively by the global pandemic shock, the full-scale military invasion and the subsequent adaptation of investors to wartime conditions, while the sectoral structure of investment has shifted markedly away from manufacturing and extractive industries toward trade, information technology and the financial sector, which are characterized by lower physical war-related risks. The proposed integral efficiency index revealed considerable disparities among priority sectors: information technology and renewable energy demonstrate the highest efficiency of FDI utilization due to high value added and rapid technology absorption, whereas transport and logistics infrastructure shows the lowest efficiency because of accumulated war damage and elevated operational risks. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the development of an integral methodological framework that combines financial, labor and export-related indicators into a single comparable measure of sectoral investment efficiency applicable under conditions of incomplete and asymmetric wartime statistics.The practical value of the obtained results consists in the possibility of using the proposed methodology by public authorities responsible for investment policy, sectoral ministries and international donor institutions for substantiating priorities of capital allocation during the post-war recovery of Ukraine, for monitoring the real economic return of foreign investment by sector, and for designing targeted instruments of investment promotion oriented toward sectors with the highest potential efficiency of capital utilization.