Sat, Feb 11 2012

German investors content, but concerned for their future in Bulgaria - survey

Mon, Apr 06 2009 11:10 CET

byNick Iliev

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German investors content, but concerned for their future in Bulgaria - survey

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev opening a new Siemens production facility in Botevgrad in 2006

Photo: Julia Lazarova

In spite of business climate in Bulgaria deteriorating because of the economic slowdown, German companies that have invested in the country are positive in their evaluation of their business climate in Bulgaria, but there was a level of concern regarding their future operations in the country, Stroitelstvo Gradut weekly has reported.

According to the survey of the German-Bulgarian Trade and Industry Chamber, carried out in March, German investors were content with the current business environment.

German executives rated the Bulgarian business climate as superior and more favourable for investment than in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia, the weekly said.

However, nearly half of the respondents are planned to scale down their investments in 2009, compared to the previous year. Only 14 per cent of the respondents planned to increase the amounts invested.

To compare, in 2007, about 57 per cent of the respondents in the survey contemplated an increase in investment at the time, edging down to 49 per cent in 2008.

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