Brits have
remained the biggest investors in Bulgarian
economy for a second year in a row, according to new
figures from Bulgarian National Bank (BNB)...
British
foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria
rose
23 per cent year-on-year to reach 901.5 million euro in 2007,
accounting for 16
per cent of all FDI inflows. The UK
stayed top of the table on the
back of the significant investment that Brits are making on the
Bulgarian
property market. The biggest share of FDI last year, 37 per cent, was
absorbed by
real estate, property rentals and business services. In nominal terms,
the FDI
in this sector jumped 41 per cent year-on-year to 2.158 million euro in
2007.
Belgium
and Luxembourg, grouped by BNB as one entity, was
second in the top 10 investors chart, posting a whopping 446 per cent
increase
in FDI, to 716 million euro last year. The surge was mainly due to the
295-million-euro acquisition of Bulgaria's
EIBank by Belgian KBC, which it followed up with the 185-million-euro
buy of
local insurer DZI.
Further
down the list are the Netherlands
with 542 million euro, Austria
with 475.1 million, Greece
with 408 million, Spain
with
314 million and Cyprus
with 198 million euro, BNB data showed. Bulgaria's financial
intermediation
industry attracted 1.741 billion euro in FDI last year, up a hefty 137
per cent
year-on-year increase. Total FDI for 2007 rose 30.3 per cent reaching a
record
high of 5.687 billion euro, as reported previously.
Source The
Movie channel