UPDATE 1 - Bulgaria's Jan-Oct C/A Gap Widens to 19.4% of GDP - Table

The country's current account deficit rose to 6.589 billion euro ($8.867 billion) in the first 10 months of 2008 from 4.610 billion euro a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement.

In October alone, Bulgaria had a current account deficit of 1.064 billion euro versus a deficit of 710 million euro in a year earlier.

The central bank has revised the current account gap figure for the first 10 months of 2007 to 16% of GDP from an earlier 17% of GDP.

Details follow:

Foreign direct investments in the country covered 73.9% of the current account deficit for the first 10 months, compared to 116.4% in the year-ago period.

Bulgaria ended 2007 with a current account deficit of 21.8% of the GDP, up from 17.8% a year earlier. For 2008, the government in Sofia expects the shortfall to swell to 24%.

($ = 0.7431 euro)