Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria in the first month of the year stood at 32.7 million euro, the equivalent of 0.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), statistics from the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) showed on March 19.
In January 2020, FDI was 108.4 million euro, but the BNB originally reported 15 million euro, which was revised upward later.
Investment in equity, including in the real estate sector, was 4.5 million euro (compared to an outflow of 52.7 million euro in January 2020) and the BNB figures showed 29.8 million euro in re-invested earnings (compared to 120.7 million euro for January 2020.)
Net receipts from real estate investments by foreign companies totalled 0.1 million euro, the same amount recorded in January 2020.
The central bank data showed 1.6 million euro in investment outflows as debt instruments, recorded as the change in the net liabilities of Bulgarian companies towards their foreign investor owners, compared to an inflow of 40.4 million euro in the first month of 2020. Such financial flows include financial loans, suppliers’ credits and debt securities, BNB said.
By country, the largest direct investment in Bulgaria in January 2021 came from the Netherlands (23.9 million euro) and Germany (6.8 million euro). Notable net outflows were recorded towards Cyprus (-18.1 million euro), Italy (-11.1 million euro) and Austria (-7.4 million euro).
According to preliminary figures, Bulgarian investment abroad increased by 1.8 million euro in January, compared to 11.6 million euro in the same month of last year, BNB said.