Along with the flagging interest of foreign investors, the decline was also the result of the cancellation of the foreign company in charge of round tripping in the third quarter of 2010.
Broken down by activities, the biggest outflow of EUR 485 million was registered in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products. The post and telecommunications saw an outflow of EUR 132.2 million.
The biggest inflow of direct foreign investments of EUR 249.3 million was registered in the "other business activities" category, followed by financial intermediation, except insurance and pension funds, with EUR 186.6 million.
Broken down by countries, Belgian companies topped the ranking with EUR 116.3 million in 2010, followed by companies from Italy with EUR 112.8 million and Luxembourg with EUR 111.6 million.
Direct foreign investments from 1993 to the end of 2010 totalled EUR 24.47 billion. Of that amount, EUR 8.6 billion was invested in banks and EUR 2.8 billion in wholesale trade and commission trade. Foreigners invested EUR 1.6 billion in petroleum products manufacturing.
Austrians topped the list of foreign investors with EUR 6.2 billion in 18 years. The Dutch ranked second with EUR 3.7 billion, followed by Germany with EUR 2.9 billion and Hungary with EUR 2.3 billion.