Romania has become a source of significant profits for foreign investors in recent years, central bank data shows.

In 2016 and 2017, the capital outflows related to foreign investments were almost EUR 2 billion higher than the inflows, according to an analysis by Ziarul Financiar.

The revenues from direct investments, namely the dividends foreign companies got from their investments in Romania, reached EUR 5 billion in 2016. The new capital foreign investors brought to Romania in 2016 totaled EUR 3.1 billion.

In the first 11 months of 2017, the net outflows were even higher as the foreign companies had revenues from direct investments in Romania of EUR 5.6 billion while they brought in only EUR 3.5 billion.

Foreign companies have thus started to capitalize on the massive investments they made in Romania in the boom years, before the crisis. In 2008, for example, the foreign investments reached a record of EUR 9.5 billion while the capital repatriations were only EUR 2.9 billion. The first year when the dividends extracted from Romania were higher than the foreign investments was 2013, when foreign companies got EUR 2.9 billion out of the country and brought in EUR 2.7 billion.

editor@romania-insider.com