Foreign direct investments in Romania will reach a record value of 8.9 billion US dollars in 2006 but will start to fall progressively to less than half by the end of the decate, according to a new report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

EIU forecasts an economic growth of 5.2% for Romania this year and a nominal value of the GDP of 113.5 billion USD, due to rise further to 165.2 billion by 2010.

And it expects a 12.6% increase of foreign investments in 2006 compared to 2005. However, they will go down to 8 billion USD in 2007, 5 billion in 2008, 4.5 billion in 2009 and 4.3 billion in 2010.

The tendency would be in line with the cycle reported by all Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004, as they reported a drop of FDI which was compensated with higher competitivity, internal market stability and an improvement of their foreign image, the study says.

It also argues that between 2006-2010 Romania will draw an annual FDI flow of 6.1 billion USD, equal to 0.48% of the world total, thus coming 30th among 80 countries in terms of FDI flows.

At a value of 285 USD for the same period of 2006-2010, Romania will come 38th in another list related to FDI per capita.

But EIU gives a negative note as it says Romania will report below-average points when it comes to the attractivity of its business environment during the same period, with a score of 6.58. And it expects Romanian population to drop from 21.6 million this year to 21.5 million by the end of the decade.