site.btaBulgarian Exports Up 12.9% in Q1 of 2015, Year on Year

Bulgarian Exports Up 12.9% in Q1 of 2015, Year on Year

Sofia, July 9 (BTA) - Bulgarian exports in the first quarter of
2015 increased by 12.9 per cent compared with the first quarter
of 2014, which was mainly due to rising exports to non-EU
countries, Economy Minister Bozhidar Loukarski said on Thursday,
 emerging from a meeting with commercial advisers from Bulgarian
 commercial services abroad.

Loukarski said: "Traditionally, our exports go to such countries
 as the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Russia, but now we see
growing exports to non-EU countries, including the United
States, the Middle East and the Far East - India, China, and the
 countries of Central Asia, the developing economies of the
former Soviet republics."

The first quarter of 2015 also saw a 3.5-fold increase in
investment in the Bulgarian economy compared with a year
earlier, Loukarski said.

Discussing the Greek crisis, the Economy Minister said that so
far Bulgaria has not suffered any losses due to the crisis.
"There is an upside as well as a downside to what is happening
in Greece. The stability of the euro area is important for the
stability of the entire EU. Greece is a neighbour of Bulgaria
and the amount of our bilateral trade is big, so we have a
particular interest in having Greece's problems solved," he
said.

"We are getting prepared for any scenario in Greece. The
comments in the Council of Ministers are that we need not panic
and we should not imagine all sorts of scenarios before it
becomes clear what will happen," Loukarski said. He added that
some Greek companies are considering relocating their business
to Bulgaria, but this is yet to come.

Alexander Alexandrov, who works with the Bulgarian Commercial
Service in Vietnam, said efforts are being made to build a
processing hub for Vietnamese goods in the Bulgarian seaport of
Varna. Stoyan Nikolov, Commercial Representative in Beijing,
said Bulgaria is exporting increasing amounts of farm products
to China, including cereals and rose-oil-based products, and a
project is being drawn up to export yogurt to China.