FDI halved.

First-quarter foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria almost halved compared to the same period of 2008 as the trade deficit shrank by a third, Dnevnik daily said. The figures, published on June 9 by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW) and Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute (NSI), showed that the country's trade deficit contracted by 34 per cent year-on-year to 2.227 billion leva, which is an upwards revision of the 44 per cent slide seen in the flash estimates.

Amid flagging economic activity, fossil fuel imports to Bulgaria plunged by more than 56 per cent on the year. WIIW calculated that first-quarter FDI shrank north of 45 per cent year-on-year but Bulgaria still emerged as the sole European Union country where funded projects from January to March outnumbered those in the same period the previous year.