The volume of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Bulgaria last year soared 30 per cent on the year to 5.7 billion euro, Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said on February 15 2008.

The share of FDI as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) rose from 17.4 per cent in 2006 to 19.9 per cent last year.

In December 2007 alone, FDI flows were up 11.5 per cent on the year to 556 million euro, whereas in fourth quarter of 2007 it grew by 13.88 per cent year-on-year to 1.57 billion euro.

At the same time, the volume of Bulgarian investments abroad climbed to 188 million euro, from 137 million euro the year before. Venture capital attracted last year came in at 3.37 billion euro and formed 59.3 per cent of overall FDI.

Revenues from the sale of real estate to foreigners soared to 1.7 billion euro last year. In 2006, the figure was 1.15 billion euro.

FDI covered 92.1 per cent of the current account gap last year, down from 110.9 per cent in 2006. The current account deficit reached 6.18 billion euro, the equivalent of 21.6 percent of GDP, according to BNB data.

The high deficit makes Bulgaria vulnerable to a hard landing should the global credit crunch curtail FDI flow, forcing the Cabinet to maintain a high budget surplus.