Overview: The Bulgarian economy continued its painful adjustment in 1993 from the misdirected development undertaken during four decades of Communist rule. Many aspects of a market economy have been put in place and have begun to function, but much of the economy, especially the industrial sector, has yet to re-establish market links lost with the collapse of other centrally planned Eastern European economies. The prices of many imported industrial inputs, especially energy products, have risen markedly, and falling real wages have not sufficed to restore competitiveness. The trade deficit, exacerbated by UN trade sanctions against neighboring Serbia, grew in late 1993, accelerating the depreciation of the lev. These difficulties in adjusting to the challenges of a more open system, together with a severe drought, caused nonagricultural output to fall by perhaps 8% in 1993. The government plans more extensive privatization in 1994 to improve the management of state enterprises and to encourage foreign investment in ailing state firms. Bulgaria resumed payments on its $10 billion in commercial debt in 1993 following the negotiation of a 50% write-off. An IMF program and second agreement with official creditors on Bulgaria's smaller amount of official debt are required to close the debt deal.

National product: GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $33.9 billion (1993 est.)

National product real growth rate: -4% (1993 est.)

National product per capita: $3,800 (1993 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 64% (1993)

Unemployment rate: 16% (1993)

Budget:
revenues: $14 billion
expenditures: $17.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $610 million (1993 est.)

Exports: $3.5 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities: machinery and equipment 30.6%; agricultural products 24%; manufactured consumer goods 22.2%; fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 10.5%; other 12.7% (1991)
partners: former CEMA countries 57.7% (USSR 48.6%, Poland 2.1%, Czechoslovakia 0.9%); developed countries 26.3% (Germany 4.8%, Greece 2.2%); less developed countries 15.9% (Libya 2.1%, Iran 0.7%) (1991)

Imports: $2.8 billion (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities: fuels, minerals, and raw materials 58.7%; machinery and equipment 15.8%; manufactured consumer goods 4.4%; agricultural products 15.2%; other 5.9%
partners: former CEMA countries 51.0% (former USSR 43.2%, Poland 3.7%); developed countries 32.8% (Germany 7.0%, Austria 4.7%); less developed countries 16.2% (Iran 2.8%, Libya 2.5%)

External debt: $12 billion (1993)

Industrial production: growth rate -10% (1993 est.); accounts for about 37% of GDP (1990)

Electricity:
capacity: 11,500,000 kW
production: 45 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 5,070 kWh (1992)

Industries: machine building and metal working, food processing, chemicals, textiles, building materials, ferrous and nonferrous metals

Agriculture: climate and soil conditions support livestock raising and the growing of various grain crops, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, and tobacco; more than one-third of the arable land devoted to grain; world's fourth-largest tobacco exporter; surplus food producer

Illicit drugs: transshipment point for southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route

Economic aid: $NA

Currency: 1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki
Exchange rates: leva (Lv) per US$1 - 32.00 (January 1994), 24.56 (January 1993), 17.18 (January 1992), 16.13 (March 1991), 0.7446 (November 1990), 0.84 (1989); note - floating exchange rate since February 1991

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Bulgaria on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bulgaria Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bulgaria Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.