RABAT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Morocco has attracted some 2.7 billion U.S. dollars of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2017, topping the Maghreb region, local media reported on Thursday.

Citing a report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Le360.ma news site said FDI flows in Morocco increased by 23 percent in 2017.

Acording to the "World Investment Report 2018," Morocco overtook its neighboring Maghreb nations such as Algeria with 1.2 billion U.S. dollars and Tunisia with 0.9 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDI in 2017.

The FDI injected in the North African kingdom went up thanks to considerable investment into new car technologies (electrical, battery, cameras), the UN report said.

The boom of FDI in Morocco comes at a time when flows to North Africa continued to slide, reaching 13 billion U.S. dollars, down 4 percent from 2016.