Bulgaria has a budget surplus but it can easily slide into a budget deficit of 1.5% of the GDP, according to the Italian Unicredit Group. The recession in Bulgaria is inevitable and will last 2 years, say the analysts. According to the expectations, the country’s economy will shrink by 3% in 2009 and by another 1% in 2010. It is expected that the budget will move from 3% surplus in 2008 to a 0.4% deficit in 2009 and a deficit of 1,5% in 2010.

The inflation is expected to fall to 3.5% for 2009 and to 1,8% in 2010 – which will be one of the few positive effects from the shrinking of the economy. The other positive effect will be the decrease of the current account deficit.

The most serious problem of Bulgaria is the sharp decrease of the foreign investment in the country which is expected to lead to a high unemployment exceeding 10%. It is expected that the unemployment will reach 12% in the next year.

The foreign investment will be 50% less than last year – from 16.7% to 7.5% of the GDP.

The Bulgarian economy has been affected by the world recession. The growth of Bulgaria’s GDP in the last quarter of 2008 was just 3.6%, according to the National Statistics Institute. This is an almost two fold slowing down – in the previous quarters the GDP’s growth was between 6.8% and 7.1%.

After Bulgaria moved out of the hyperinflation and the recession during the rule of the government of Zhan Videnov (1996-1997), the economy’s growth has never been so small, except once, nine years ago, in the last quarter of 1999 when the GDP grew by 3,5%. Since then the Bulgarian economy has been growing steadily and the annual growth in the last six years was never under 4%.

The Bulgarian industry has suffered the hardest blow. In the last quarter of 2008 it has had a negative growth of -0.1%. The export has decreased by 6,8% in October-December 2008. At the same time the import has shrunk by 3.7%. The growth of the GDP, although rather small, is due to the growth of the agricultural production of 20.6%. The reason for this is mainly the good harvest.

For the whole of 2008, the GDP’s growth was 6% which was due to the active economic growth in the first nine months of the year. Bulgaria’s GDP for 2008 was 66 billion levs.

Bulgaria alongside Romania, will experience a shock because of the global slow down of the world economy according to analysts. There will be job cuts both in these countries, as well as in Spain, Italy and the U.K. where many Bulgarians and Romanians work to support their families back home. The lack of access to foreign capital will be the major problem for the the East-European economies next year according to BNP Paribas. The huge foreign disbalance must be corrected now to avoid problems in the future. The expectation is that Romanian economy will shrink by 0.6%, while Bulgarian economy will shrink by 1,2%. The official unemployment figures are on the increase and has already reached 5.9% in Bulgaria and 4% in Romania in October 2008. In the last six years, unemployment has been steadily decreasing due to the emigration of work force to the West. The return of many of the this guest workers back home will combine with the inability of those who remain abroad to support their families in their homeland. In Bulgaria the money sent from workers abroad used to amount to 5% of the GDP according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Рublished in the Financial Times

By Kerin Hope and Theodor Troev in Sofia

There are warning signals everywhere, yet the European Union’s poorest member insists it can weather the global financial crisis.

Standard and Poor’s last month downgraded Bulgaria’s long-term debt to BBB. Fitch this month cut its rating to BBB- just one notch above junk bond status.

On Friday, the Bulgarian Industrial Association urged the finance ministry to redraft next year’s budget and cut the growth forecast from 4.7 per cent to 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented global crisis… for the first time, the tensions in Bulgaria’s economy are caused not by internal but by foreign factors,” the association said.

However, Plamen Oresharski, the finance minister, rejects a suggestion that after bail-outs of Hungary and Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund, Bulgaria may be among the next in line.

“We are not in a similar position. Our banking system looks sound, with a good level of liquidity and healthy reserves,” he said. “Our concerns about the real economy are greater, but we still expect comparatively strong growth next year.”

Thanks to a record grain harvest, the economy is projected to expand this year by 6.9 per cent.

But the current account deficit – the highest in south-east Europe at about 24 per cent of GDP – appears unsustainable given an accelerating decline in foreign direct investment.

Investment inflows fell 48 per cent in the third quarter, according to central bank figures, following the collapse of a holiday-home construction bubble and a freeze on transfers by eurozone banks to their Bulgarian subsidiaries.

“Construction has been the most important growth driver, even more than in Spain, so the outlook is grave,” said Lubomir Christoff, a former chief economist at the central bank.

Sergey Stanishev, prime minister, has suggested Bulgaria should join the EU’s exchange rate mechanism next year. But although Bulgaria can point to a budget surplus and a low public debt (about 18 per cent of GDP), an annual inflation rate above 10 per cent rules out any chance of an early entry to the euro.

Mr Oresharski argues that an accumulated fiscal surplus of Lev12bn ($7.8bn, €6.2bn, £5.2bn) provides a cushion.

“One relief is that the government doesn’t have any short-term borrowing requirements,” he said.

In spite of rapid credit expansion since EU accession last year, total bank indebtedness is still low at about 30 per of GDP.

Lending is tight because foreign banks have lost access to funding from parent groups squeezed by the global credit crunch.

“We’ve been told to rely on our own resources, which means lending will slow,” said a senior executive at a foreign-owned bank.

Bulgaria’s currency board, which pegs the lev to the euro, is intended to eliminate foreign exchange risk. The arrangement also requires that money in circulation does not exceed central bank reserves.

With reserves at 180 per cent of currency in circulation, the lev was buttressed against an all-out attack on the currency board, Mr Oresharski said.

But other currency boards in the Baltics look less stable following Latvia’s request last week for EU help to fend off a crisis.

The growth of Bulgaria’s GDP in the first six months of this year of 7% is one of the highest in the E.U. Only Romania with growth of 9.3% and Slovakia with 7.6% have better results than Bulgaria.The added value is 12.994 billion levs which is equal to 6.7%.

The big surprise comes from the agriculture which has been decreasing until this year when it showed growth by 11.7% in comparison with the first half of last year. The added value of the plant growing has incresed by 25% according to the National Statistics Institute. At the same time the added value of the industry has increased by 7.2%, while the one of the services have increased by 5.8%.

The best performer is the chemical industry with an increase of 26%, financial services are in second place with 21%, while metal production is in third place with 20%. Construction industry has shown slower progres of just 7.7% in comparison with 11.7% in 2007. Only the textile industry has shown decrease of 3.5%.

Despite the recession, Bulgaria is still attractive to foreign investors. The investments have reached 34.8% of the produced GDP.

Bulgaria’s GDP has increased by 6.3% for the second quarter according to express evaluation of the National Statistic Institute. The minister of economy Dimitrov said that the real increase might reach 6.5%. The optimism is based on the good results coming from agricultural production, according to the minister. If agricultural production has kept the same levels as of 2006, the increase of the GDP would have been 8.5%.