UPDATE 2 - Bulgaria's 9-mo GDP Growth Accelerates to 7.0% Y/Y

SOFIA (Bulgaria), December 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a real 7.0% on the year in the first nine months of 2008, faster than the revised 5.9% growth in the same period a year ago, the National Statistics Office (NSI) said on Monday.

The country's GDP reached 48,037.4 million levs ($33,046.1 million/24,561.1 million euro), calculated in current prices, through September, NSI said in a statement.

The Bulgarian economy grew by 6.8% in the third quarter, compared to 7.1% in the second quarter of 2008 and 4.9% in the third quarter of 2007.

Third-quarter and nine-month growth was well above NSI flash estimate released last month under which the country economy grew by 5.6% and 6.5%, respectively.

Released data also are well above analyst forecasts which saw third-quarter growth slowing down to 5.5% year-on-year.

"Industry made 31.2% of the value added of the economy, which is a 2.0% drop on the year. Industry grew by a real 5.4% [in the first nine months]," NSI head of non-financial national accounts Elena Atanasova told a news conference.

Services rose by a real 6.8%, raising their share in the gross value added to 60.4% through this September from 59.9% through September the previous year, Atanasova said.

"The farm sector raised its output in the nine months [of 2008] by a real 24% as compared to the same period of 2007," she added.

In 2007, the country's GDP grew by 6.2% in real terms, a bit slower than the 6.3% rise recorded in 2006.

The government in Sofia expects that the growth of the country's economy will slow down in the coming years hit by the global financial and economic turbulences. The government sees the country's economy growing by a real 6.5% in 2008.

* revised figures

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)