Bulgaria has Second Highest Percentage of Non-Investing Companies in EU - EIB
The percentage of Bulgarian companies which made no investments in the last financial year is the second highest in the European Union, and the local business is even less optimistic about investments in 2018, mainly due to lack of skilled workers and uncertainty about the future, according to a survey by the European Investment Bank (EIB) presented on Friday. Only 64% of Bulgarian companies made investments in the last financial year, compared to 87% EU-wide, the annual EIB Investment and Investment Finance Survey (EIBIS) showed. The results of the survey were presented at a conference in Sofia organised in partnership with the Chambers of Commerce of Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Italy. The findings are based on interviews with 476 firms in Bulgaria in the April-August period of 2018.Corporate investments in intangible assets and development of new products and services in the country are 14 percentage points lower than the average in the bloc - at 22% versus 36% in the EU - and innovative firms rely mostly on adopting innovation rather than developing it.