Foreign direct investment expanding in Slovenia
Ljubljana - Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Slovenia increased by 2.4% to EUR 16.6 billion last year despite there being no major takeovers like the year before, according to a fresh report from the central bank.
Austria ranks as the biggest investor with a 25.6% share in the total value of incoming FDI. Austrians are mainly investors in manufacturing and retail industries, and in the sector of motor vehicles maintenance and repairs.
Luxembourg is the second largest investor with 13% with the bulk of investments in financial and insurance business, followed by Switzerland with 10.7% where most investments are in manufacturing.
Germany and Italy ranked as fourth and fifth with 8% and 7.3%, respectively. The focus of German FDI was similar to Austria's and Italian focused on finance, insurance and manufacturing.
Foreign investors reported a combined EUR 1.2 billion in profit, and they received EUR 700 million in dividends.
Slovenia's outbound FDI last year increased by 1.7% to EUR 7 billion.
Businesses in full or part Slovenian ownership abroad posted EUR 100 million in profit, only a third of the figure reported in 2019.
One third of Slovenian FDI was in Croatia (32.9%) mainly in the form of real estate held by households and investment in retail and motor vehicles maintenance and repairs companies.
Serbia was the second destination for Slovenian FDI (17.9%), followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina (7.9%). In both countries Slovenian businesses were present mainly in the finance and insurance industry.
Russia ranked fourth (6.1%) and North Macedonia fifth (6%), with manufacturing being the focus in the former and finance and insurance in the latter.