Bulgaria Plans To Cut 2009 Economic Growth Target Due to Global Crisis - Media

The Socialist-led government coalition has projected a real 4.7% rise in Bulgaria's gross domestic product (GDP) in its 2009 budget draft tentatively approved on first reading by the parliament earlier this month.

The head of the parliament's budget commission, Rumen Ovcharov, has proposed to slash the GDP growth target by two percentage points, Klasa business daily quoted Ovcharov's deputy Martin Dimitrov as saying.

According to unnamed members of parliament from the Socialist Party quoted by the 24 Chasa daily the GDP growth target may be cut to 1.5%.

Cuts in economic growth projections mean the government will have to slash its fiscal surplus target for next year, currently set at 3.0% of GDP, or around 2.4 billion levs, Trud daily reported.

Parliament is required to adopt the 2009 budget by the end of this year.

The initial budget draft has drawn fier from both the businesses and analysts, who said it ignored the real impact of the global crisis on the Bulgarian economy.

Bulgarian GDP is projected to grow by a real 6.5% this year.