Romania’s foreign investment stock sees slowest growth in five years

The stock of foreign investments in Romania, representing all foreign investments made, minus outflows related to these investments, grew by only 1.4%, or EUR 832 million, in 2013, to a total of EUR 59.96 billion, according to local financial newspaper Ziarul Financiar.

This is the lowest growth rate since the beginning of the crisis, according to data from Romania’s National Bank (BNR) and the National Statistics Institute (INS). In 2012, the growth was of 7.2%.

The foreign investment balance growth in 2013 was modest, despite a 28% increase in new investments, to EUR 2.7 billion. This shows that other companies reduced their exposures on Romania.

“The difference between the investment inflows and the growth in the overall investment balance comes from investors who left, or from investments which depreciated in time and so their values declined,” said analyst Aurelian Dochia, quoted by Ziarul Financiar.