site.btaInterest of Austrian Business Towards Bulgaria Is There, Results of Advantage Austria Survey Show

The majority of Austrian companies, which have invested in Bulgaria, expect the economic climate in the country to remain stable or improve over the next 12 months. The share of investors who believe that the climate will remain stable is overwhelming - 54%, while those who expect it to improve have a share of 13%. These ratios reflect a marginal increase in the number of optimistic Austrian companies with operations in Bulgaria, compared to attitudes over the past 12 months. This is one of the findings in the traditional "Survey of Austrian investors in Bulgaria" of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce Advantage Austria. The results were presented this morning by Philippe Kupfer, Commercial Counsellor at the Austrian Embassy in Bulgaria. The survey was conducted at the end of 2024 and involved the representatives of 98 companies.

Kupfer pointed out that the best words to describe the business climate in Bulgaria would be 'stability' and 'continuity', with a tendency towards a certain amount of 'optimism'. The latter is due to the more positive forecasts for economic growth in Bulgaria in 2025 - approximately 2.5%.

According to the attitudes of Austrian investors in Bulgaria on the development of key company indicators over the next year, 44% of respondents expect an increase in turnover, while 38% predict that it will remain stable. The lowest share of those expecting a decrease in revenues is 16%. Attitudes are also optimistic about expected new orders, with 37% expecting them to grow and 44% expecting them to remain at the same level. In the third category of metrics, for "Capacity Utilization," 31% of respondents indicated as their answer that they anticipate utilization to increase and 60% anticipate it to remain the same. Employee headcount was expected to increase at 29% of Austrian investors, and to remain stable at 63% of companies. Attitudes to the projected volume of investment over the next 12 months are relatively identical - 29% of survey respondents intend to increase investment, with 51% expecting no change in the amount of investment. The proportion of companies where the volume of investment may shrink was 18%. Compared to the previous survey, the data presented today show a shrinking share of negative business sentiment in each of the company performance categories.

"I can tell you from our daily experience at Advantage Austria that interest in Bulgaria remains stable. Austrian companies continue to look for Bulgarian partners, Bulgarian companies to work together with and even to invest in a later stage," Kupfer said. 

The five categories with the most negative answers in the survey given by the representatives of Austrian investors in Bulgaria are respectively: "Political stability"; "Fight against corruption and crime"; "Bureaucracy"; "Predictable economic policy"; "Availability of skilled workforce".