FDI drops in five months, current account deficit further widens

Foreign direct investments (FDI) to Romania totaled EUR 1.43 billion in the first five months of the year, down 31.5 percent on the same period of last year, according to data recently released by the Romanian Central Bank (BNR). There was a volume of FDI of EUR 300 million in May this year. April saw the highest monthly volume of foreign investments, with EUR 381 million. The lowest was in february, EUR 164 million. Most of the FDI during this five-month period was made of capital increase, while only EUR 228 million were loans withing the group. Foreign investments covered half of the current account deficit, which was of EUR 2.8 billion during this period. The current account deficit was up 45.7 percent during these first five months compared to the same interval of last year. The total FDI volume last year was of EUR 4.89 billion, which was half of the volume in 2008.