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Main article: Bulgaria
GDP
2022: Industry's share of GDP - less than 17.5%
2021: Agriculture's share of GDP - 4.4%
2018
GDP growth 3.3%
Share of tourism in GDP
Financial system
Foreign exchange reserves
2018: Reserves $25 billion
Euro Transition Plan
Bulgaria said in February 2023 that the country would not be able to enter the eurozone until 2025. The Bulgarian Minister of Finance explained that the authorities will not have time to fulfill the EU requirements for the transition to the euro until at least 2025. These requirements, in particular, relate to inflation indicators, which in 2022 became a record.
Inflation
2022
Inflation in November - 17.6%
Inflation in July - 16.9%
July
Key rate
National debt
2023: State debt - 33% of GDP
Welfare of citizens
2023: $2 billionaires
2020: 3rd since the end in the EU in terms of financial assets of citizens
Salaries
2023: Minimum wage - $315
2018: Salaries of top officials in government management
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2017: Average monthly salary
Labour market
2022: Proportion of workers aged 65 or over - above 5%
Unemployment
2022: Unemployment rate - 4.3%
2020: Unemployment rate - 5.6%
Energy carriers
Gasoline price
Gas imports
2022: Participation in the Three Seas Initiative
Bulgaria is a member of the Three Seas Initiative aimed at countering Russia.
2020: Dependence on Russian gas
2012: Start of construction of gas pipeline from Romania
On August 16, 2012, Bulgaria began construction of a gas pipeline that should connect the country with neighboring Romania. According to Agence France-Presse, the pipeline is needed by Bulgaria in order to reduce dependence on Russian gas[1].
The gas pipeline will last only 25 kilometers and connect the Romanian city of Giurgiu with Bulgarian Ruse. It is assumed that from 2013 Bulgaria will be able to import up to one and a half billion cubic meters of fuel per year, about half of all the country's needs.
As of August 2012, Bulgaria is completely dependent on gas supplies from Russia through the territory of Ukraine. In this regard, the Balkan country became one of the most affected during the gas war between Russia and Ukraine in 2009, when Kyiv suspended transit for two weeks, and Moscow - fuel supplies to importers.
In 2010, Bulgaria also signed an agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline to northern Greece, but its construction for August 2012 has not begun.
Oil imports
2023: Bulgaria convinced to refuse oil from Russia at Lukoil refinery
In September 2023, it became known that Bulgaria was convinced to refuse to supply Russian oil, which strikes at the Lukoil refinery. Lawmakers voted to limit the use of Russian oil at Lukoil's refinery to 80% by the end of 2023 and to completely abandon it by October 2024.
This move will force PJSC Lukoil's Neftochim refinery, the largest in Southeast Europe, to look for alternative raw materials. This is not an easy task, since the plant processes mainly Russian oil, and the most obvious replacement - oil from Kazakhstan - is already in demand in neighboring Romania. In early 2024, the government introduced a 60% enterprise income tax, which will be reduced to 15% only after its sale. And in order for the refinery to process non-Russian oil varieties, modernization worth 500 million euros is necessary.
As a result, Bulgaria officially stopped importing Russian oil from March 1, 2024. According to the decision of the Bulgarian authorities, a schedule was approved providing for halving imports from January 1, 2024, bringing supplies to 25% from February 1, and completely stopping them from March 1. At the same time, Bulgaria was on the list of countries that received the right to exemption from the EU embargo on maritime supplies of Russian energy resources, valid until the end of 2024. But the country's leadership forced the refusal of supplies, and actually stopped imports since December 2023.
Largest companies in Bulgaria
2020
2018
Bankruptcy dynamics
Sectors of the economy
Power
2022: Rise in electricity prices due to pressure on Russia
from
2020: Energy consumption per capita
and
Nuclear Power Industry
- Kozloduy NPP
- Belene NPP (project frozen in 2021)
Foreign trade
2022
Trade deficit with China
Ukraine enters Bulgaria's top three trading partners outside EU, displacing US
In their investigation into Bulgarian supplies to Ukraine in January 2023, journalists from the German newspaper Die Welt mentioned diesel tanks that literally "saved" Ukraine in the spring of 2022. With the help of secret supplies through foreign intermediary firms, Bulgarians supplied Ukraine with fuel, at times covering up to 40% of its needs.
At the same time, data on Bulgarian exports show that in 2022 Ukraine unexpectedly entered the top three trading partners of Bulgaria outside the EU, displacing the United States. Over the year, exports grew by more than 130% and reached almost 1.2 billion leva.
However, contrary to popular belief, such an increase was not due to the export of weapons, but due to fuel. In the first eight months of 2022, energy supplies in monetary terms increased from 1.5 million leva to more than 700 million leva. This is more than 500 times.
Unlike the supply of weapons, no one introduced a ban on the export of energy resources in the Sofia parliament. However, the irony is that diesel fuel supplied by Bulgaria for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was processed from Russian crude oil at the refinery of the Russian company.
The largest refinery in the Balkans and the only in Bulgaria, Lukoil Neftochim Bourgas AD, belongs to the company of the same name, which in turn is part of the European division of Lukoil.
In May, rumors spread that he could stop his work amid an EU embargo on Russian oil supplies. The fact is that the plant's technological installations are designed to work with Russian Urals oil, and replacing it without losses for the production process is almost unrealistic. Yes, it is technically possible to process oil from the Middle East and North Africa (and some of the resources did come from Iraq), but this significantly reduces the capacity of the enterprise.
Contrary to fears, soon the prime minister of the technical government Donev confirmed that the refinery would be able to continue working in full. The European Commission said: Bulgaria was granted the right to use Russian oil until 2024 as an exception - for the internal needs of the country.
In 2022, an oil refinery on the Black Sea coast produced almost twice as much fuel as a year earlier. But the Bulgarian market accounted for only about 50% of the products.
The rest was directed to Ukraine, which Ukrainian officials admitted to the German publication. According to the ex-Minister of Finance, tanker trucks were regularly sent to Ukraine through Romania, fuel also came along the railway route. And local sources confirm that the locomotives are still going towards Ukraine.
Oil refining at foreign enterprises occupied 32% of Lukoil's portfolio. The largest share was in the Italian refinery, which the company is now forced to sell to Israel's G.O.I. Energy. After leaving Italy, Lukoil lost 60.76% of foreign oil refining, and only Romanian Petrotel Lukoil and Bulgarian Lukoil Neftochim Bourgas remain among its foreign assets.
The Bulgarian authorities are making desperate attempts to nationalize the enterprise: in January 2023, deputies of the People's Assembly adopted amendments to the law on administrative regulation of economic activities related to oil and oil products. However, so far Lukoil is still the beneficiary.
Arms exports to Ukraine for 1 billion euros in 8 months
From February to October 2022, Bulgaria exported weapons worth more than one billion euros to Ukraine. Not officially (because this is prohibited by the decision of the country's parliament), but through the third countries of Eastern Europe, primarily through Poland and Romania.
2019: Computer Device Exports
Agriculture
2019: Low use of pesticides in agriculture
Retail
Telecommunications
Information Technology Market
Tourism
Main article: Tourism (world market)
Alcohol market
Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages
Consumption
Tea
2018: Per capita tea consumption per kg per year
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Milk
2018: Milk consumption in litres per year per person
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Meat
2023: Pork is the most consumed type of meat
2019: Pork is the most consumed type of meat
Beer
2019: Beer consumption in litres per year per person
R&D
2020: R&D spending - $1bn
Notes
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