Bulgaria‘s gross domestic product last year reached a record 68 billion euros, growing by 3.6% with inflation of 3.3 percent.
The data are from the annual edition of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry “Bulgaria in Figures”.
Inflation in our country is expected to reach annual levels of over 12 percent in 2022 due to prices and supplies of energy raw materials and delayed investments. According to the BCCI, it is quite natural that at the current inflation levels of nearly 17% (as of June 2022), the GDP of the country should increase significantly. Unemployment remains at very low levels, although it has yet to offset the effects of the pandemic and reach the pre-crisis levels of 4.2% in 2019.
Bulgaria is a leader in terms of the tax system in the EU and this is one of our main competitive advantages, but the coronavirus pandemic and the military conflict in Ukraine create uncertainty among investors.
After the restored supply chains, our country achieved record exports in 2021 in the amount of 35 billion euros, or a growth of 24 percent. Bulgaria‘s leading trade partners in terms of exports this year are Germany, Romania, Italy, Greece and Turkey. The import of goods and services also registered record values last year, with the trade balance of our country remaining negative again.
The average salary continues to grow, reaching 782 euros in 2021, and in the first quarter of 2022 it reaches 814 euros.
According to the yearbook of the BCCI, Bulgaria improves its place in the rankings for “Freedom of the media”, where it rises from 112th place to 91st out of 180 countries in 2022, and in the “Index of Economic Freedom” ranking, where it rises from 35th place in 2021, the country climbs to 29th position out of 177 countries. The performance in the international ranking of the “Global Peace Index” also improves.
In other rankings, Bulgaria maintains its place, such as the World Competitiveness Ranking of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), where our country ranks 53rd out of 63 countries. It is negative that in some rankings Bulgaria worsens its place in the “Rule of Law Index” of the World Justice Project, where we lower our position from 53rd place in 2020 out of 128 countries to 62nd place in 2021 despite the inclusion of 11 new countries in the ranking, our country worsened its position by 9 places. From 32nd place in 2020, Bulgaria fell to 36th place in the “Economic Freedom Worldwide” index. Bulgaria is also positioned worse in the “Globalization Index”, where it falls one position down to 33rd place out of 208 countries, reports the yearbook of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Source: www.novinite.com
