Collapse of foreign direct investments in Bulgaria, report by BIA

There is a huge decline in foreign direct investment in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) said on 28^th of August, based on a report for the period 2007 - 2017. The trend is deepening in 2018, with investments in the first half being 2 times less compared to the previous year.

For 10 years, foreign investment has declined almost 10 times. At time Bulgaria joined the European Union, they were nearly 18 billion BGN i.e. 27% of the Gross Domestic Product. The lowest figure was reported last year - about 1 billion and 860 million BGN, which is less than 2% of the GDP. According to experts, the ideal investment rate is 10% of GDP.

Kamen Kolev, Deputy Chairperson of BIA: This amounts to 10 billion BGN.

In 2007, the share of foreign investment to local investment was 98.6% to 1.4%. For the past year, the result is completely opposite - 9.8% to 90.2%. Besides, it turns out that the biggest investor is the Bulgarian emigrant.

Radosvet Radev, Chair of BIA: Bulgarians who live outside Bulgaria transfer more money annually than the size of the foreign direct investment.

Last year, they sent 2 billion and 254 million BGN to their relatives. They are followed by the size of investments by Dutch, Germans and Swiss. Mostly, they invested in the processing industry, trade, insurance and banking services. Statistics also show that we are doing a little better than Romania, but in the past we have had a much greater lead.