Foreign investors are returning to Bulgaria, but the capital they bring is far below the value a year ago, when investments were already contracting and the country's GDP declined steeply.

According to preliminary data of the Bulgarian National Bank, released on Monday, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria was 358.5 million euro (1 per cent of GDP) for January-June 2010, down 78 per cent from the 1,616.7 million euro (4.8 per cent of GDP) attracted in January-June 2009.

By home country, the largest net direct investments in Bulgaria for the six-month period of 2010 were The Netherlands (933 million euro, mainly revolving intercompany credits), Russia (103.4 million euro) and the US (47.3 million euro). By branch, the largest investments for the first half of the year were in electricity, gas and water supply (108.2 million euro) and in real estate (96 million euro).

During the same period, 718.1 million euro were withdrawn from Bulgaria to Austria, 102.5 million euro to the Netherlands Antiles, and 82.4 million euro to the UK.

For the first time since the start of the crisis, the outflow of capital from Bulgaria exceeded the inflow of foreign
invetsment, by 21.7 million euro, in the first quarter of 2010.

FDI stood at 926 million euro (2.7 per cent of GDP) for January-March 2009 and at 131.5 million euro for the comparable period a year later.