In Bulgaria we focus on:
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Enhancing Competitiveness through Improved Efficiency, Governance and Innovation. The Bank will support financial restructurings and provide long term finance for competitiveness enhancement, and energy efficiency investments as well as support regional economic integration by providing financing for cross-border investments and exports. For smaller companies, the Bank will work with and through financial intermediaries to ensure sufficient access to funds and explore expanding its business advisory activities.
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Strengthen the financial sector intermediation through targeted investments and improved governance. The Bank will explore risk sharing products in order to support overall intermediation and in particular MSME development as well support sector consolidation. The Bank will also seek to support the deposit insurance fund with a combination of investment and policy dialogue.
- Narrowing the Infrastructure Gap through Commercialisation, Reform and Efficiency. The Bank will seek to support commercialisation and private sector participation in transport, gas and municipal infrastructure, including by working with the authorities to facilitate leveraging of available EU structural funds. In the energy sector, the Bank is ready to renew its dialogue with the authorities with the view to support the energy sector reform strategy and would provide investments to support public utilities financial and operational performance, while continuing energy efficiency investment across the economy.
The EBRD’s latest strategy for Bulgaria was adopted on 8 July 2015
- EBRD's latest Bulgaria strategy
- EBRD’s latest Bulgaria strategy in Bulgarian
- Report on the invitation to the public to comment on the Bulgaria strategy
EBRD forecast for Bulgaria’s real GDP growth in 2018 3.6%
EBRD forecast for Bulgaria's real GDP growth in 2019 3.4%
The Bulgarian economy grew by 3.6 per cent in 2017. Private consumption was the main driver of growth, as average wages increased on account of the tightness of the labour market and a 10 per cent increase in the minimum wage. Improved absorption of EU structural funds saw investment start to pick up in 2017, following a decline in 2016. However, the impact of net exports on growth turned negative due to the consumption driven increase in imports. Following a three-year deflation, consumer prices increased in 2017, driven by growing household consumption. The government stuck to tight fiscal
policies throughout 2017, leading to a budget surplus standing at 0.9 per cent of GDP at the end of the year. Growth is expected to remain around 3.6 per cent in 2018, declining slightly to 3.4 per cent in 2019. Growth will continue to be driven by domestic demand, as tight labour market conditions spur consumption and investment strengthens as work on infrastructure projects financed under the EU’s 2014-20 budget continues.
<a class="btn btn-ebrd-more more" 2017.tr-ebrd.com="" en="" #!bulgaria"="" countries="">Bulgaria in the EBRD’s 2017-18 Transition Report
