Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia were less attractive Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries for risk and private capital investors, a study of the Spanish University of Navarra and Strategic Capital Management AG showed.

Hungary ranked as most attractive CEE country, followed by Slovenia, the Baltic countries and Poland.

The study analysed investment possibilities, market size, growth prognoses, market capitals, tax environment and the entrepreneurship of the population.

The results were compared to economic conditions in the first 15 EU member states. Ireland ranked first in the overall ranking, followed by Luxembourg and the UK.

In general, the CEE countries were less attractive to investors than the 15-EU, the study showed as quoted by cfo-news.com.

GDP per capita in the CEE countries was smaller and the might need decades to catch up with other EU members. Still, some of the CEE countries like Hungary and Slovenia ranked ahead of some ‘old’ EU members such as France.

Despite the fact that the CEE countries were in transition, they offered excellent investment opportunities for risk and private capital, the study said. Weak points of these countries were the high unemployment, poorly developed capital markets and their relatively small economies.