Foreign direct investment up by roughly 30.2 pct in H1

Foreign direct investment in Romania in H1 2019 increased by roughly 30.2 percent to 2.322 billion euro from the same period of the year before, shows data released on Tuesday by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). 

Direct investments by non-residents totaled 2.322 billion euro (compared to 1.783 billion euro in H1 2018), with equity (including the estimated net reinvestment of earnings) amounting to 1.762 billion euro, and intercompany lending standing at 560 million euro, BNR said in a release. 

The number of newly established companies running on foreign capital decreased in the first half of 2019 by 0.05 percent YoY to 2,857 units, according to data centralised with the National Trade Register Office (ONRC). 

The respective new companies had a paid-up capital of over 8.64 million US dollars, down 75.3 percent from January-June 2018. 

As many as 221,334 companies with foreign capital were established between 1991 and 2018, with a total paid-up share capital in excess of 63.117 billion dollars. 

As of June 30, 2019 there were 224,191 foreign capital companies in Romania, most of which - specifically 48,112 - running on Italian capital; however, the largest share of the equity capital is held by Dutch companies, namely 12.912 billion dollars in 5,326 companies.