November 2 (SeeNews) - Romania attracted 9.496 billion euro ($14 billion) in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, slightly above the 9.024 billion euro figure reported at the beginning of 2009, final central bank data showed on Monday.
Net credit received from foreign investors accounted for 48.7% of last year's FDI in Romania. Equity stakes accounted for the remainder, according to a survey conducted by Romania's central bank, BNR, and the statistics board, INS.
In 2008, out of the total FDI equity flow, 66.8% was spent for corporate development, 32% went into mergers and acquisitions and only 1.2% into greenfield investments, the central bank said.
FDI stock in Romania as of 31 December 2008 totalled 48.8 billion euro. Austrian companies accounted for 18.8% of the FDI stock, Dutch companies had a 17.2% share and German companies ranked third with a 15.4% share at the end of the year.
Romania, a member of the European Union since 2007, needs substantial foreign investments in order to maintain economic growth, create new jobs and keep in check its mounting current account deficit. Last year, FDI covered 53.5% of the country's external shortfall of nearly 17 billion euro.
($ = 0.6769 euro)