FDI into Bulgaria Nearly EUR 800 M in January-June

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB)'s headquarters in downtown Sofia. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria drew foreign direct investment (FDI) worth EUR 799.6 M in the first half of 2015, the Bulgarian National Bank has said.

Preliminary data released by the central bank suggests FDI amounted to 1.9% of gross output.

Its volume was also 1.9% higher than the investment between January and June 2014, when it was EUR 749.9 M, or 1.8% of GDP.

June (EUR 178 M) saw quite a substantial growth in FDI compared to the same month in 2014 (EUR 127.8 M).

Equity amounted to EUR 169.8 M over the period of six months, compared to EUR 105.7 M.

The bank defines "equities" as "acquisition/disposal of shares and equities in cash and contributions in kind by non-residents in/from the capital and reserves of Bulgarian enterprises and receipts/payments from/for real estate deals in the country."

Receipts from real estate investments of non-residents were at EUR 17.5 M, with EUR 64.8 attracted in January-June 2014.

The BNB's geographical breakdown shows that the largest (by far) net direct investment flow in the first six months of 2015 came from the Netherlands - at EUR 567.3 M) followed by Austria and Norway.

Direct investment abroad also grew in January-June (by EUR 72.6 M), though this was only a slight increase compared to last year when in jumped by EUR 354.3 M over the first two quarters.

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