Greece remained the fourth largest foreign investor in Bulgaria, after Austria, Holland and Germany, with total investments of 2.501 billion euros at the end of September 2016, from 2.441 billion in the same period in 2015, the Greek embassy said in a report.

Direct foreign investments to Bulgaria totaled 38.7 billion euros in the third quarter of 2016, while in 2016, foreign direct investments totaled 682.8 million euros, or 1.5 pct of the country’s GDP (from 1.692 billion or 3.7 pct of GDP in 2015). In 2016, the largest direct foreign investments to Bulgaria came from Luxembourg (135.6 million euros), Holland (128.1 million) and the UK (118.1 million).

Bilateral trade between Greece and Bulgaria grew slightly (2.0 pct) in 2016 reflecting a 7.1 pct increase in Bulgarian imports, while Greek exports fell 3.5 pct in the year. As a result, the Greek trade deficit with Bulgaria more than doubled in 2016. The trade balance between the two countries was traditionally in surplus until 2012.

Hellenic Statistical Authority data showed that a decline in Greek exports to Bulgaria reflected lower exports of fuel and oil products, while increase Bulgarian exports to Greece reflected higher exports of cereals, clothing, plastic materials, tobacco, vehicles, chemicals.
The top Greek export products in 2016 were fuel, tobacco, aluminium, games, cigars and fruit. Imports from Bulgaria were mainly electricity, wheat, sunflower oil, poultry, clothing and cheese.

Source: greece.greekreporter.com