February 17 (SeeNews) - The flow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into Bulgaria dropped by 59.7% year-on-year to 682.8 million euro ($726.8 million) in 2016, the central bank, BNB, said on Friday.
The FDI inflow was equal to 1.5% of GDP in 2016, down from 3.7% of GDP in 2015, the BNB said in a statement.
In December alone, FDI dropped by 258.3 million euro .
Most of FDI into Bulgaria in 2016 – 135.6 million euro - originated in Luxembourg. The Netherlands followed with 128.1 million euro and the UK came in third with 118.1 million euro.
Real estate investments by non-residents totalled 54.9 million euro in 2016, down from 72.5 million euro attracted in 2015.
The largest inflow of real estate investment came from Switzerland, 41.4% of the total amount. Russia followed with 13.7% and Norway with 11.1%.
($ = 0.9394 euro)