January 11 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's real economic growth will wane to 1.7% in 2023, as energy supply issues, high inflation and tightening financial conditions ripple through Central Europe, the World Bank said, lowering its June forecast by 2.6 percentage points (pp).
Gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow to 3.3% in 2024, which is 0.4 pp less than projected in June, the World Bank said in its January 2023 Global Economic Prospects report published on Tuesday.
The country's real economy expanded by an estimated 3.1% last year, the global financial institution said. That was 0.5 pp above the June forecast.
The GDP growth of the Central European subregion, which includes Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, is expected to sharply decline to 1.1% in 2023, a difference of 2.6 pp on the June report, before picking up to 2.7% in 2024. Central Europe's real economic growth in 2022 is estimated at 4.5%.
"Meaningful reforms alongside effective absorption of multiple EU investment funds will be crucial to ensure that the subregion’s
potential growth is boosted in the remainder of the decade," the World Bank noted.
The global lender forecast GDP growth of 1.7% for Bulgaria in 2023 in the autumn edition of its Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Economic Update published in October 2022.