site.btaBulgaria's First-Quarter GDP Goes Down by 1.8% Y/Y, Up by 2.5% Q/Q

ESD 13:10:31 08-06-2021
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108 ECONOMY - DATA - GDP

First-Quarter GDP
Goes Down by 1.8% Y/Y,
Up by 2.5% Q/Q


Sofia, June 8 (BTA) - Seasonally adjusted data show that Bulgaria's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2021 dropped by 1.8 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2020 and grew by 2.5 per cent against the fourth quarter of 2020, the National Statistical Institute said on Tuesday, reporting early estimates.

GDP in the first quarter of 2021 amounted to 27,054 million leva in current prices, putting quarterly per-capita GDP at 3,912 leva. Based on an average exchange rate of 1.622815 leva to the US dollar, GDP amounted to 16,671 million dollars in the first quarter of 2021, which was 2,411 dollars per capita. Denominated in the single European currency, GDP stood at 13,833 million euro, or 2,000 euro per capita.

Gross value added (GVA) generated by the Bulgarian economy in the first quarter of 2021 totalled 23,128 million leva in current prices. Agriculture contributed 2.2 per cent of total GVA, the same share as in the first quarter of 2020. Industry lost 0.6 percentage points of its share in GVA, leaving it at 26.5 per cent. Services, the largest sector of the national economy, saw its share in GVA grow from 70.7 per cent to 71.3 per cent.

Final consumption expenditure in the first quarter of 2021 was 84.1 per cent of GDP. Gross capital formation was 13.9 per cent of GDP. The balance of foreign trade in goods and services was in positive territory.

In the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, GVA grew by 2.6 per cent, according to seasonally adjusted early estimates. Final consumption expenditure rose by 2.1 per cent, and gross capital formation went down by 2 per cent. Export of goods and services increased by 6.7 per cent, and import went up by 2.7 per cent.

In the first quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020, GVA decreased by 1.7 per cent. This was influenced by a 5.9 per cent decline in exports. Imports rose by 1.9 per cent. RY/VE