This Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes Data Module provides a review of Bulgaria’s data dissemination practices against the IMF’s special data dissemination standard, complemented by an in-depth assessment of the quality of the national accounts, consumer price index, producer...

Bulgaria's macroeconomic performance, in the face of the prolonged slowdown in the EU, has been impressive, but further efforts are required. The government's fiscal policy has underpinned recent economic success, and pressures to loosen such policies should be resisted. Fiscal reforms have...

This 2008 Article IV Consultation discusses that Bulgaria has been hit by the global financial crisis, with clear signs that the country’s capital inflows-driven boom has come to an end and that the real economy is slowing down. Executive Directors have commended the Bulgarian authorities for...

The large capital inflows that generated a domestic demand boom in Bulgaria led to strong employment growth. But a sharp reduction in capital inflows led to a contraction of domestic demand, while the recession in Bulgaria’s trading partners caused a drop in exports. Public policies will also...

Bulgaria’s potential output growth in future could be markedly lower, and it may take considerable time for the excess labor and resources to be absorbed by other sectors, in particular by the export sector. This suggests that the natural level of rate of unemployment will rise and remain...

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...

Bulgaria and Romania, the last two participants in EU's large Eastern Enlargement, joined the Union more than two years after the big Central European wave. This chapter presents an assessment of some of the changes that took place in the period after accession and also seeks to analyse to what...

This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix analyzes the reasons behind the relatively low rates of savings in Bulgaria and prospects for their evolution over the medium term. The paper argues that low saving rates largely reflect the current stage of transition—characterized by still...