BULGARIA’S EXPORT GROWTH AMONG HIGHEST IN EU’S NEW MEMBERS- WORLD BANK

Sofia Echo, 1st June 2007

Bulgarian export grew at much higher rates than the one in most new EU member states, recent economic report of the World Bank (WB) showed.

WB's report is named EU 8+2 and provides data on the eight countries from Central and Eastern Europe that joined EU in 2004, excluding Malta and Cyprus. The report also has information on Bulgaria and Romania.

Bulgaria exports mainly to the 15 oldest EU member states. Its export to newer union members also increased, investor.bg reported.

Production growth increased in all 10 monitored countries in 2006. It, however, is expected to slow down in 2007. Production growth increased in Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania while it remained almost unchanged in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

Labour market restrictions in 2006 led to increase of salaries in Baltic countries and Romania. Estonia registered a salary increase of 11.3 per cent, Latvia of 15.6 per cent while the increase in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria varied between 3.3 and 4.1 per cent.

Foreign current account deficit in all countries continued increasing. The steady increase of export combined with increasing demand on the domestic markets led to increase of current account deficits by more than 15 per cent of the GDP in Latvia, Estonia and Bulgaria.




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