Bulgaria has registered an increase in its foreign direct investment in January-May 2012 year-on-year, according to the latest data of the Bulgarian National Bank released on Monday.

According to the Bulgarian National Bank's preliminary data, the foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for January - May 2012 increased by EUR 473.8 M (1.2% of GDP), compared to an increase of EUR 72.2 million (0.2% of GDP) for January – May 2011.

Bulgaria's attracted Equity Capital (acquisition/disposal of shares and equities in cash and contributions in kind by non-residents in/from the capital and reserves of Bulgarian enterprises and receipts/payments from/for real estate deals in the country) for January - May 2012 amounted to EUR 346.4 M.

It increased by EUR 57.6 M compared to that attracted in the same period of 2011 (EUR 204.6 M).

The receipts from real estate investments of non-residents amounted to EUR 98.1 M, compared to EUR 72.5 M attracted in January - May 2011.

The other capital, net (the change in the net liabilities of the direct investment enterprise to the direct investor on financial loans, suppliers' credits and debt securities) was positive, amounting to EUR 104.7 M in January - May 2011, compared to a negative other capital, net of EUR -171.8 M in January - May 2011.

Based on preliminary data on profit/loss, the Reinvested Earnings2 (the share of non-residents in the

undistributed earnings/ loss of the enterprise) in January - May 2012 were estimated at EUR 22.5 M, against EUR 39.4 M in the same period of 2011.

By country, the largest direct investments in Bulgaria for the period January - May 2012 were those of the Netherlands (EUR 394.7 M) and Switzerland (EUR 105.5 M).

The largest negative flows for the period were towards Germany (EUR -247.3 M), UK (EUR -65.8 M) and UK Greece (EUR -62.6M) mainly due to net payments on intercompany credits in accordance with the loan repayment schedules of enterprises.