Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria amounted to EUR 1.467 B between January and November of last year, preliminary data from the Bulgarian National Bank show.

This is a 20.6% year-on-year increase, according to statistics of the central bank.

The Netherlands was by far the biggest investor for that period with net direct invesment inflow from the country reaching EUR 681 M, the second one being Germany (EUR 187.9 M).

Investment for the respective period constituted 3.3% of GDP, compared to the previous year's 2.8% of GDP (EUR 1.216 B).

A significant drop of inflows into Bulgaria is observed in November of 2015 (EUR 96.7 M) compared to the same period of the previous year (EUR 218.8 M).

A breakdown of investment shows equity was the most significant factor behind this growth, amounted to EUR 988.1 M for the first eleven months of 2015, growing by EUR 506 M (105%).

Reinvestment of earnings totalled EUR 590.6 M for January – November 2015, compared to EUR 153.7 M in the same period of the year before.

Net debt instruments were a negative EUR 111.7 M between January and November of last year, compared to a positive EUR 580.6 M in the same period of 2014.

Direct investment in January-November 2015 amounted to EUR 19.3 M, much less than the EUR 429.4 M in the same period of the year before.