December 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's ten-month current account gap narrowed to a preliminary 7.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) projected for 2009 from 20% of GDP a year earlier thanks to a shrinking trade deficit, the country's central bank said on Tuesday.
The current account deficit fell to 2.464 billion euro ($3.58 billion) through October from 6.827 billion euro a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement.
In October alone Bulgaria ran a current account gap of 252.5 million euro versus a gap of 1.168 billion euro a year earlier.
A shrinking trade gap was the main reason for the decrease in current account deficit. Bulgaria's trade deficit fell to 3.497 billion euro in the first ten months of 2009, equivalent to 10.4% of the projected GDP, from 7.209 billion euro, or 21.1% of GDP, in the same period last year.
Exports fell 26.6% year-on-year to 9.685 billion euro through October, compared to an 18.5% annual rise in the first ten months of 2008.
Bulgaria's January-October imports decreased by 35.4% on the year to 13.182 billion euro. In the first ten months of 2008 imports rose by 21.6% on the year.
Foreign direct investments (FDI) in the country totalled 2.333 billion euro, or 7.0% of the projected GDP, and covered 94.7% of the current account deficit in January to October, compared to 85.9% in the year-ago period, when FDI was equivalent to 17.2% of GDP.
Details follow:
BALANCE OF PAYMENTS (in millions of euro) |
Jan-Oct'09 |
Jan-Oct'08 |
CURRENT ACCOUNT |
-2,463.7 |
-6,826.6 |
-Trade balance |
-3,497.3 |
-7,208.9 |
-Balance of services |
1,364.5 |
857.1 |
-Income balance |
-737.0 |
-979.2 |
-Net current transfers |
406.1 |
504.5 |
CAPITAL ACCOUNT |
391.2 |
241.6 |
FINANCIAL ACCOUNT |
1,785.3 |
11,035.7 |
Foreign direct investments in Bulgaria |
2,332.5 |
5,866.1 |
TOTAL BALANCE |
-814.1 |
2,185.6 |
($ = 0.6883 euro)