Foreign Direct Investment in Bulgaria by Sector in 2025

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Bulgaria, as reported under the Bulgarian National Bank methodology, amounted to EUR 4.1 billion in 2023, dropped to EUR 2.4 billion in 2024 and rebounded to EUR 3.2 billion in 2025.

The pattern points to a strong correction in 2024 followed by a partial recovery in 2025, though without matching the 2023 peak.

Drivers of the investment flow

In 2025 the leading sectors are again financial and insurance activities with EUR 868.2 million, manufacturing with EUR 601.0 million, trade with EUR 424.5 million, and the segment covering telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy and IT services with EUR 406.0 million.

This shows that the rebound relies simultaneously on traditionally strong capital-intensive industries and on activities with higher technological intensity.

Sectors with sharp swings

The most pronounced fluctuation over the period is in the production and distribution of electricity, heat, gaseous fuels and cooling energy: from EUR -488.3 million in 2023 the sector moved to EUR 186.0 million in 2024 and EUR 266.9 million in 2025.

A similar reversal is visible in trade — after a strong EUR 770 million in 2023, the flow turned negative in 2024, before recovering to a positive EUR 425 million in 2025.

The extractive industry is another example of volatility: EUR 99.9 million in 2023, EUR -71.4 million in 2024 and EUR 94.6 million in 2025.

Real estate operations moved from EUR 95.4 million in 2023 to EUR -24.4 million in 2024, and then reached EUR 140.4 million in 2025, pointing to the sector's sensitivity to the market cycle and to corporate restructuring.

Stable and weaker segments

Among the relatively resilient positive segments are telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy and information services, which attracted EUR 476 million in 2023, EUR 383 million in 2024 and EUR 406 million in 2025.

By contrast, agriculture, forestry and fishing remained close to zero or in negative territory throughout the period, while human health, social work, education and culture attracted comparatively limited volumes of capital.

This suggests that the structure of FDI in Bulgaria remains concentrated in a few large sectors, while social and partially publicly funded activities stay peripheral for foreign investors.

Conclusions

Over 2023–2025 Bulgaria maintained a positive overall FDI flow, but the sector picture is highly uneven and dependent on a few leading activities. Finance, manufacturing, trade and IT-related services form the bulk of investor interest, while energy, real estate and mining stand out for their sharp year-on-year volatility.

In practical terms, the data support the conclusion that Bulgaria's investment environment in 2025 is stronger than in 2024, but the recovery is not evenly distributed across sectors.