Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria in the first three months of the year recorded an outflow of 27.8 million euro, the equivalent of 0.04 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), statistics of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) showed on May 19.

In the same period of 2020, FDI recorded an inflow of 341 million euro, but the BNB originally reported 254.4 million euro, which was revised upward later.

Investment in equity, including in the real estate sector, recorded an outflow of 134.2 million euro (compared to an outflow of 35.1 million euro in January-March 2020) and the BNB figures showed 490.4 million euro in re-invested earnings (compared to 347.1 million euro for the first three months of 2020.)

Net receipts from real estate investments by foreign companies recorded an outflow of 0.5 million euro in the first quarter, compared to an outflow of 0.1 million euro during the same period of last year.

The central bank data showed 384 million euro in investment outflows as debt instruments, recorded as the change in the net liabilities of Bulgarian companies towards their foreign investor owners, compared to an inflow of 29 million euro in the first three months of 2020. Such financial flows include financial loans, suppliers’ credits and debt securities, BNB said.

By country, the largest direct investment in Bulgaria in January-March 2021 came from the Netherlands (187.3 million euro) and France (144.4 million euro). Notable net outflows were recorded towards the United Kingdom (-240.1 million euro), Russia (-147.9 million euro) and Belgium (-100 million euro)

According to preliminary figures, Bulgarian investment abroad increased by 26.1 million euro in January-March, compared to 66.8 million euro in the same period of last year, BNB said.