Greek direct investments in Bulgaria roughly quadrupled in the first quarter of 2006 compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by the Economic and Trade Affairs bureau at the Greek Embassy in Sofia, 109.4 mln euro from 28 mln euro.

There was no breakdown, however, of the types of investments involving Greek capital.

Despite the increase, Greeces share of foreign direct investments during the 1st quarter of 2006 was 14.8% and it ranked 4th among countries with the largest direct investments in Bulgaria, after Austria (25.8%), the United Kingdom (22.6%) and the Netherlands (20.8 %).

This did not affect rankings for the countries with the largest direct investments from June 1996 until 2006, in which Austria still ranked first with total investments of €2.33 billion (19.6%) and Greece second with €1.333 billion (11.2%), followed by the Netherlands and Italy.