The paper assesses key aspects of Bulgaria's competitiveness. The challenge is to stay on course and persist with policies that will maintain and strengthen competitiveness. Implementation of the ambitious reform policy with respect to the pension and health care systems is required. The reasons...

This paper reviews economic developments in Bulgaria during 1990–95. In 1993, GDP continued to contract, albeit more slowly than previously. Real GDP declined by 2.4 percent owing to a drought-induced collapse in agricultural output. As consumption-driven imports rose and exports fell, the...

KEY ISSUES Context. Macroeconomic and financial stability has been maintained despite the difficult environment globally—especially in neighboring Greece—and recent domestic discord, but growth remains tepid and unemployment high. Ambitious (and politically challenging) reforms are needed to...

This paper focuses on EU structural and cohesion funds assistance to Bulgaria during the 2007–13 program period. Initial weaknesses resulted in a low absorption rate, which was mitigated by increasing advance payments; applying electronic application and reporting procedures; simplifying and...

This Selected Issues paper reviews recent developments in growth and employment in Bulgaria and highlights key constraints to growth suggested by cross-country competitiveness studies. Bulgaria's GDP has grown substantially since economic and financial stabilization in 1997. The global economic...

Labor productivity levels in Bulgaria lag well behind that in the EU, weighing on the convergence process. Stronger productivity growth would allow Bulgaria to close the income gap with the EU average more quickly and to alleviate the structural problems in its labor market, reflected in its...

The paper analyzes common issues emerging from the recent experience with Fund-supported programs in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. These comprise the initial price-overshooting and the output collapse, fiscal sustainability as well as the financial and structural...

This paper reviews economic developments in Bulgaria during 1990–97. Bulgaria’s macroeconomic performance during 1990–97 was weaker than in most transition countries in the region. With economic activity declining significantly during most years, the cumulative fall in real output over...

The paper discusses the interrelationships between payments system reform and monetary policy implementation in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The reforms in the payments system are viewed as closely interrelated with the development of money and foreign exchange markets and...