Bulgaria was ranked 29th in terms of number of foreign direct investments attracted in 2017 according to Ernst & Young’s European attractiveness survey. Bulgaria secured 33 FDI projects in 2017 – a slight decrease compared to 2016 when they totaled 36. The new jobs created as a result of FDI were only 2 739 – decrease of 30% on 2016, when the new jobs were 3 959.
The largest investors in Bulgaria were:
- Germany, which created 1200 jobs
- Great Britain with 510 jobs
- USA with 242 jobs
The newly created jobs through FDI in Bulgaria were mainly in the field of business services, finance, information technology, transport and logistics.
The countries with the highest FDI growth in 2017 were:
- Serbia – 157%
- Turkey – 66%
- Finland – 44%
The countries from Central and Eastern European (CEE) continued to attract more FDI than their Western European partners under the auspices of their membership in the European Union (EU), ranking third in attracting investors.
Attractiveness of regions for investors:
- Western Europe – 53%
- China – 42%
- Central and Eastern Europe – 41%
- North America – 34%
The full ranking and analysis of the consulting company are available here.
