Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Bulgaria dropped by 46.1% year-on-year in the first ten months of 2016, the country's central bank BNB has said, citing preliminary data.

Over that period, FDI decreased by EUR 806.2 M to EUR 942 M. Last year, the respective value was EUR 1.7483 B.

The FDI figure for January-October 2016 was equivalent to 2.1% of GDP forecast for the year by the BNB.

Equity investment by non-residents fell by EUR 668.2 M year-on-year, reaching EUR 302.8 M in January-October.

Real estate investment of non-residents slightly decreased to EUR 53.3 M for the first ten monts of 2016, compared to EUR 52.7 M in the same period of last year. The largest inflow of real estate investment came from Switzerland – EUR  22.7 M (42.6% of the total amount), Russia (EUR 6.4 M, or 12%) and Norway (EUR 6.1 M, or 11.5%), the BNB says [PDF].

Reinvestment of earnings dropped to an estimated EUR 594.2 M for the first half of 2016, compared with EUR 635.7 M a year earlier.