December 16 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's software sector is expected to achieve annual sales revenue of more than 15 billion levs in 2026 ($8.16 billion/7.67 billion euro), compared with over 5.47 billion levs in 2021, the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM) said.
The information and communication technology industry, in which the software sector is leading, has the real chance to become first in terms of revenue among other industries in Bulgaria, BASSCOM said in its latest annual report released on Thursday.
Notably, the software sector is forecast to create 34,400 jobs in Bulgaria by 2026. According to the forecast, the sector is expected to pay around 2.89 billion levs in taxes in 2026, compared with estimated tax contributions of 1.27 billion levs in 2022.
Bulgaria’s software companies are forecast to generate operational revenue of 7.34 billion levs in 2022, up from 5.84 billion levs last year, the study showed. According to the data, annual revenue in the sector has increased over six times over the past three years.
The expected 2022 revenue should form 4.5% of Bulgaria's gross domestic product for the year, compared with 4.2% in 2021, BASSCOM said.
The report is based on data from 5,035 software companies.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)