Foreign direct investment grew by 17.6% in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period in 2017, to 1.720 billion euros, according to data from the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

“Direct investment by non-residents in Romania amounted to EUR 1.720 billion (compared with EUR 1.462 billion between January and May 2017), of which equity capital (including the net reinvested earnings) amounted to EUR 2.208 billion, while intra-group loans recorded a negative net value of € 488 million”, the BNR communiqué says.

The number of new start-ups fell in the first five months of this year by 1.83% compared to the same period last year, to 2.362 units, according to data compiled by the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).

The 2,362 new companies had a subscribed capital of more than $ 32.373 million, up 92.9% compared to January-May 2017, according to Agerpres. In 2017, 5,837 such firms were set up in Romania, 9.1% above the level in 2016, the worst among the last 18 years for newly established foreign capital companies.

Between 1991 and 2017, 215,651 companies with foreign participation in the capital were set up, the total amount of the subscribed share capital being over 61.3 billion dollars.

On May 31 2018, 218,013 foreign-owned companies were registered in Romania; most of them (46,278) had Italian capital, but the largest share in the social capital comes from Dutch companies, namely 12,493 billion dollars, in 5,144 companies.