Overview: Growth in the sluggish Bulgarian economy fell to the 2% annual level in the 1980s, and by 1989 Sofia's foreign debt had skyrocketed to $10 billion--giving a debt service ratio of more than 40% of hard currency earnings. The post-Zhivkov regime faces major problems of renovating an aging industrial plant, keeping abreast of rapidly unfolding technological developments, investing in additional energy capacity (the portion of electric power from nuclear energy reached 37% in 1988), and motivating workers, in part by giving them a share in the earnings of their enterprises. A major decree of January 1989 summarized and extended the government's economic restructuring efforts, which include a partial decentralization of controls over production decisions and foreign trade. The new regime promises more extensive reforms and eventually a market economy. But the ruling group cannot (so far) bring itself to give up ultimate control over economic affairs exercised through the vertical Party/ministerial command structure. Reforms have not led to improved economic performance, in particular the provision of more and better consumer goods. A further blow to the economy was the exodus of 310,000 ethnic Turks in mid-1989, which caused temporary shortages of skilled labor in glassware, aluminum, and other industrial plants and in tobacco fields.

GNP: $51.2 billion, per capita $5,710; real growth rate - 0.1% (1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 12% (1989)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $26 billion; expenditures $28 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA billion (1988)

Exports: $20.3 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--machinery and equipment 60.5%; agricultural products 14.7%; manufactured consumer goods 10.6%; fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 8.5%; other 5.7%; partners--Socialist countries 82.5% (USSR 61%, GDR 5.5%, Czechoslovakia 4.9%); developed countries 6.8% (FRG 1.2%, Greece 1.0%); less developed countries 10.7% (Libya 3.5%, Iraq 2.9%)

Imports: $21.0 billion (f.o.b., 1988); commodities--fuels, minerals, and raw materials 45.2%; machinery and equipment 39.8%; manufactured consumer goods 4.6%; agricultural products 3.8%; other 6.6%; partners--Socialist countries 80.5% (USSR 57.5%, GDR 5.7%), developed countries 15.1% (FRG 4.8%, Austria 1.6%); less developed countries 4.4% (Libya 1.0%, Brazil 0.9%)

External debt: $10 billion (1989)

Industrial production: growth rate 0.9% (1988)

Electricity: 11,500,000 kW capacity; 45,000 million kWh produced, 5,000 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: food processing, machine and metal building, electronics, chemicals

Agriculture: accounts for 15% of GNP; climate and soil conditions support livestock raising and the growing of various grain crops, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and tobacco; more than one-third of the arable land devoted to grain; world's fourth-largest tobacco exporter; surplus food producer

Aid: donor--$1.6 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-88)

Currency: lev (plural--leva); 1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki

Exchange rates: leva (Lv) per US$1--0.84 (1989), 0.82 (1988), 0.90 (1987), 0.95 (1986), 1.03 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Bulgaria on this page is re-published from the 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Bulgaria Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Bulgaria Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.