FDI increased by 13.5% year-on-year to EUR 10.1bn at the end of 2014, the Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

The share of FDI in the gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 27.2%, which is about two percentage points higher than in 2013 and about five points higher than in 2008.

The value of direct investment of Slovenian companies abroad at the end of 2014 was also up compared to 2013, by 2.8% to EUR 5.3bn, which is the first increase in the last five years.

However, this did not suffice for any significant change in the GDP share. The share of these investments in GDP amounted to 14.2%, which is almost level with the 2013 share and 1.8 points lower than in 2008.

Slovenian companies directly or indirectly owned 1,317 companies abroad, employing a total of 36,992 people.

In terms of the relative size of exports and imports of goods and services in the GDP, Slovenia ranked 11th among EU members in 2014. Exports of goods and services represented 76.5% of GDP and imports 68.7%.

The country is trading mostly in goods (ranking sixth) and less in services (ranking sixteenth).

According to the Statistics Office, Slovenia's exports and imports are mostly oriented towards European markets.

About 4.5% of active companies in Slovenia were foreign-owned in 2013. They were however economically more important that domestic companies as their share in total employment amounted to about 16% and they generated 22% of added value, the Statistics Office said.

Foreign companies were also an important engine of research and development, contributing 27.2% to the total spending in this field in 2013.