Bulgaria Sets 4.7% Economic Growth Tagret in 2009 Budget Draft – Media

“Concerns that the crisis will affect Bulgaria’s economy are mirrored in the budget draft. It has a GDP growth target of 4.7%,” 24 Hours quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin forecast economic growth of 5.0% to 5.5% next year, cutting previous government projections for 6.0%-6.5% growth.

The International Monetary Fund and Italy’s UniCredit banking group have both projected that Bulgaria's economic growth would slow down to 4.2% in 2009. The government expects growth of 6.2%-6.5% in 2008, Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov said in August.

The ex-communist state of some 7.6 million people, which is running a huge current account deficit and operates a currency board regime that prevents the central bank from lending to the government, has pledged to stick to rigid fiscal policies, including the maintaining of a budget surplus of more than 3.0% of the projected GDP, in order to offset external shocks.