The BNB reported foreign direct investments of 2.174 billion euros in the Bulgarian economy for the first six months of the year. Compared to the same period in 2025, their amount has jumped by more than 7 times - at the end of June last year, the net flow of foreign capital in the country was only 292 million euros.
Analysts and politicians explain the convincing growth of foreign direct investments in our country this year with the adoption of the euro.
A more detailed analysis shows that foreign investments this year are formed mainly from reinvested profits. Subsidiaries of foreign companies in Bulgaria have reinvested 1.648 billion euros of their profits in their operations in the first six months of the year. This trend can also be explained by the introduction of the euro - a large part of existing investors have more peace of mind and security and are reinvesting more and more of their profits in Bulgaria.
In addition, parent companies have provided their Bulgarian divisions with loans of 329.7 million euros to their companies in Bulgaria. These loans serve to develop the activity, but are subject to repayment. For example, in the first half of last year, Bulgarian companies returned 1.129 billion euros to their headquarters, and this is one of the reasons for the collapse in foreign direct investments in 2025.
The third indicator is equity capital - these are the real new foreign investments that enter the Bulgarian economy. For the first six months of the year, their size is quite modest - only 197 million euros. For comparison, during the same period last year, negative equity, i.e. capital outflow - of 34 million euros was reported.
The BNB also measures foreign citizens' investments in real estate. For the first half of the year, the net flow is negative at 5.6 million euros, i.e. more foreigners have resold their properties in Bulgaria than have purchased new ones.
The largest net positive flows in direct investments in the country for January - June 2026 are from Germany (372.5 million euros), Luxembourg (353.4 million euros) and Austria (269.9 million euros), and the largest net negative flows - to Malta (76.7 million euros) and Poland (20.4 million euros).