Bulgaria’s Economy To Slow Down by 2%-3% Next Year - Financier

Bulgaria’s 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 last month. Bulgaria's economy is projected to grow by a real 6.5% in 2008.

“The trend is economic growth to slow down [...] because Europe, which is our main economic partner, is currently in recession. […] We will have a positive economic growth in the following years, albeit a slower one,” the head of international financial markets department in Bulgarian financial and investment company BenchMark, Valentin Ivanov, told local Pari daily in an interview.

The crisis in Bulgaria's real economy will last for a year, Ivanov said.

Local media reported last month that the government plans to cut its economic growth target for next year to a real 2.7% and even to 1.5% due to the global financial crisis, from 4.7% projected in the 2009 budget draft tentatively approved by parliament. Bulgaria’s GDP grew by a preliminary 6.5% in the first nine months of 2008, faster than the 5.9% growth rate recorded a year earlier.

Ivanov also said Bulgaria's unemployment rate would rise to over 10% next year. The official jobless rate reported by the government's Employment Agency was 5.85% in October after 5.8% in September. Bulgarian Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova said last month she expected the average unemployment rate in the country to fall to 5.6% in 2009.