REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

FDI FLOWS IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
FDI became an important part of the domestic economies of the EU accession countries. In
2000, the FDI stock averaged just 12,43% of GDP, ranging from 7,2% in Turkey to 15% in
Macedonia and 15,1% in Croatia. By 2007, the FDI stock averaged 50,1 percent of GDP,
ranging from a minimum of about 22,2 percent in Turkey to 41,1 percent in Macedonia and
a maximum of 87 percent in Croatia.
European Union (EU) member countries traditionally have been the largest sources of FDI
in EU candidate countries. In 2007, EU-27 accounted for about 99% of total FDI inflows
to Croatia, 75% of total FDI inflows to Macedonia and two thirds of total FDI inflows to
Turkey (See http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/index_en.htm)
In 2007 EU-27 FDI outward flows to the EU candidate countries (Croatia, Macedonia and
Turkey) recorded their fifth consecutive year of growth reaching a record level of EUR
20 billion compared to only EUR 2 billion in 1999, which represents a nine-fold increase.
The EU FDI outward flows to Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey grew particularly strongly
between 2006 and 2007 (302,97%,145,19% and 139,21%, respectively).
Figure 2: EU FDI outward flows to EU - candidate countries for 2003-2007
(in millions EUR)
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
15.239
10.496
4.425
4.690
1.593
1.150
1.164
597
1.128 1.548
42,56 137,68 40,87 254,95 354,91
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Macedonia Croatia Turkey
Source: Eurostat , Pocketbook on candidate and potential candidate countries 2009 edition, p. 6-7 and web
site of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia (www.nbrm.gov.mk)
Regarding the FDI inflows per capita, a big difference can be observed among the EU
candidate countries. In the period 2003-2007 Croatia has by far been the major recipient of
FDI inflows per capita among the three EU candidate countries with EUR 358,78 in 2003 and
EUR 1065,91 in 2007 (five to six times higher than in Turkey and Macedonia, respectively).
In the same period the FDI inflows per capita in Turkey varied between EUR 16,68 in 2003
to EUR 215,85 in 2007 in Macedonia. The smallest FDI inflows per capita in the above
mentioned period were recorded in Macedonia-EUR 21,07 in 2003 and EUR 177,46 in
2007.
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