Bulgaria's Foreign Direct Investment Tumbled in Feb 2014

Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for January - February 2014 increased by EUR 114.1M or 0.3% of GDP, according to Bulgaria's National Bank preliminary data.

Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for February 2014 increased by EUR 41.3M, compared to an increase of EUR 152.5M for February 2013 which is a drastic decline of 72.9% on an annual basis.

The attracted Equity Capital for January - February 2014 amounted to EUR 42.3. It decreased by EUR 151.9M compared to that attracted in the same period of 2013 (EUR 194.2M).The receipts from real estate investments of non-residents amounted to EUR 12.3M, compared to EUR 17.5M attracted in January -February 2013.

The other capital, net (the change in the net liabilities of the direct investment enterprise to the direct investor on financial loans, suppliers' credits and debt securities) was positive, amounting to EUR 47.2M in January -February 2014, compared to a positive other capital, net of EUR 2.1M in January - February 2013. Based on preliminary data on profit/loss, the Reinvested Earnings (the share of non-residents in the undistributed earnings/ loss of the enterprise) in January - February 2014 were estimated at EUR 24.6M, against EUR 27M in the same period of 2013.

By country, the largest direct investments in Bulgaria in January - February 2014 were those from the Netherlands and amounted to EUR 48.7M and from British Virgin Islands (EUR 18.6M). The largest net negative flows for the period were towards France (EUR -6.5M).

According to preliminary data in January 2014, Direct investment abroad increased by EUR 14.8M, compared to an increase of EUR 9.7M in January - February 2013.