Foreign investments to Romania go to manufacturing, financial, real estate and retail sectors

Foreign direct investments reached EUR 3.4 billion in Romania last year, according to data from the Romanian Central Bank (BNR), taking the entire stock of FDI to the country to almost EUR 50 billion. The manufacturing industry was one of the main targets, with 31 percent of the investments. Oil, chemical products, plastics, metallurgy, transport industry, food and beverages industries, cement, glass and ceramics were among the target sectors for foreign direct investments. The financial sector attracted 19 percent of the FDI, real estate and constructions, 12.9 percent, retail – 12.3 percent and IT&C, 6.5 percent, according to BNR. Bucharest got more than half of the investments, with the center, south, west and south – east of the country ranging from 5.9 to 7.4 percent of the FDI. The Netherlands was the main country of origin for foreign investments in Romania last year, with 21.8 percent of the FDI, followed by Austria, Germany, France and Greece. Companies which run based on foreign investments made a 69 percent contribution on exports, while covering 60 percent of imports. The BNR study covered 6,000 companies which run with foreign direct investments. Foreign direct investments to Romania fell 36 percent to EUR 1.9 billion in the first seven months of this year, from EUR 2.9 billion during the same period of last year, according to data from the Romanian Central Bank. editor@romania-insider.com