Economy of Bulgaria
On 1 January 2007 Bulgaria entered the European Union. This led to some immediate international trade liberalization, but there was no shock to the economy. The government is running annual surpluses of above 3%. This fact, together with annual GDP growth of above 5%, has brought the government indebtedness to 22.8% of GDP in 2006 from 67.3% five years earlier [8]. This is to be contrasted with enormous current account deficits. Low interest rates guarantee availability of funds for investment and consumption. For example, a boom in the real estate market started around 2003 and has not subsided yet. At the same time annual inflation in the economy is variable and during the last five years (2003-2007) has seen a low of 2.3% and high of 7.3% [9] . Most importantly, this poses a threat to the country's accession to the Eurozone. The Bulgarian government plans for the Euro to replace the Lev in 2010. However, experts predict that this might happen as late as in 2012 [10]. From a political point of view, there is a trade-off between Bulgaria's economic growth and the stability required for early accession to the monetary union. Bulgaria's per-capita PPP GDP is still only about a third of the EU25 average , while the country's nominal GDP per capita is about 13% of the EU25 average.
As of January 1, 2008 the income tax for all citizens is set to a flat rate of 10%. This flat tax is one of the lowest income rates in the world and the lowest income rate in the European Union [4]. The reform was done in hope for higher GDP growth and greater tax collection rates. Some called it a "revolution" in taxation, but the changes were met with mild discussions and some protests by affected working classes. The proposal was modified to allow for compensating the perceived losers from the changes in the tax formula. The corporate income tax is also 10% as of January 1, 2007 which is also among the lowest in Europe [5].
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Statistics
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
- lowest 10%: 2.9%
- highest 10%: 25.4% (25.4)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 31.6% (2005)
Industrial production growth rate: 11.3% (Third Quarter)
Electricity:
- production: 45.7 TWh (2006)
- consumption: 37.4 TWh (2006)
- exports: 7.8 TWh (2006)
- imports: 0 TWh (2006)
Electricity - production by source:
- fossil fuel: 47.8%
- hydro: 8.1%
- nuclear: 44.1%
- other: 0% (2001)
Oil:
- production: 3,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)
- consumption: 131,400 bbl/day (2005 est.)
- exports: 51,000 (2005 est.)
- imports: 138,800 (2004 est.)
- proved reserves: 15 million bbl (1 January 2006)
Natural gas:
- production: 407,000 cu m (2005 est.)
- consumption: 5.179 billion cu m (2005 est.)
- exports: 0 cu m (2005 est.)
- imports: 5.8 billion cu m (2005)
- proved reserves: 5.703 billion cu m (1 January 2006 est.)
Agriculture - products: vegetables, fruits, tobacco, livestock, wine, wheat, barley, sunflowers, sugar beets
Current account balance: $ -5.01 billion (2006 est.)
Reserves of foreign exchange & gold: $11.78 billion (2006 est.)
Exchange rates:
| Year | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | 2.12 | 2.18 | 2.08 | 1.73 | 1.58 | 1.57 | 1.56 | 1.43 |
Source: Bulgarian National Bank. Levs per US dollar; On 5 July 1999 the lev was re-denominated; the post-5 July 1999 lev is equal to 1,000 of the pre-5 July 1999 levs.
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See also
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Notes
- ^ IMF Data report for Bulgaria 2004-2008
- ^ IMF Data report for Bulgaria 2004-2008
- ^ IMF Data report for Bulgaria 2004-2008
- ^ Labour force survey for Q1, National Statistical Office
- ^ Labour force survey for Q1, National Statistical Office
- ^ Unemployment Down To 6.51%
- ^ Ministry of Finance, Government Debt Monthly Bulletin March 2008
- ^ The Hard Road Towards the Euro. Capital (13 April, 2007).
- ^ Inflation Statistics. Stat.bg (5 May, 2007).
- ^ [[1] List of projections for year of accession to the Monetary Union]
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External links
![[1]](http://capital.bg/showimg.php?filename=oo_330697.jpg){kind=link}
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