Bulgaria GDP Fall Deteriorates to 4,9% in Second Quarter of 2009

A beggar man counts his coins in front of a cash machine in Sofia, Bulgaria The county has seen its tax revenues falling as foreign investors flee, exports plunge and companies cut output. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4,9% in the second quarter of 2009, the first time the country's GDP marks a drop year-on-year in two successive quarters since the financial and economic crisis in 1997.

The country's GDP shrank by 3,5% in the first quarter of 2009 on an annual basis.

Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest member, has already entered recession with its economy shrinking 5% from January to March and contracting 1,6% in the fourth quarter on a quarterly basis.

The county has seen its tax revenues falling as foreign investors flee, exports plunge and companies cut output.

Bulgaria's exports and imports shrank 15,8 % year-on-year and 24.3 % year-on-year in the second quarter, the statistics office's data showed.

Consumption wend down by an annual 3,7 % in the second quarter from a 5,4 % drop in the first quarter.

Industrial output shrank 7,2 % from April to June, the growth of services slowed down to 1,4 %. Investment shrank by 16,3 % in the second quarter after dropping 14,1% in the first quarter of 2009.

The government expects the contraction of Bulgaria's economy to slow down to 2% next year from a 6,3% shrinking in 2009.

 

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