site.bta Finance Ministry Issues Report on Bulgarian Economy's Development in March

Finance Ministry Issues Report on Bulgarian Economy's Development in March

Sofia, May 4 (BTA) - The Finance Ministry Wednesday issued its monthly report on the development of Bulgarian economy, which presents the dynamics of the main macroeconomic indicators in March 2016. The full version of the report is available on the ministry's website.

"Short-term business statistics continued showing mixed performance, as industrial turnover decreased further, while growth rates of both industrial production and retail sales accelerated and the steep decline in construction activity slowed down. Meanwhile, consumer confidence stayed unchanged over the previous month, whereas the overall business climate increased for a third consecutive month," the report reads.

"The harmonized unemployment rate and the registered unemployment decreased further in February and March. The former came in at 7.9 per cent, while the latter stood at 9.9 per cent. These developments are well in line with the expected further improvement of the labour market."

Consumer prices posted a 0.6 per cent month-on-month decrease in March with negative contribution from all major components of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, except for alcohol and tobacco. The negative annual inflation rate accelerated further to  minus 1.9 per cent year-on-year, largely on the account of higher negative contribution from lower energy prices."
  
"The current account balance came in positive at 0.4 per cent of projected GDP in January 2016, as trade balance reported slightly positive. Primary and secondary income balances also improved slightly over a year earlier. However, external trade in services reported a lower surplus."

"Gross external debt (GED) kept decreasing as a ratio to GDP and reached 74.2 per cent as of end-January, with improvement in the external indebtedness of all institutional sectors."

"International reserves went up by 8.2 per cent month-on-month to 21.4 billion euro in March. The improvement came on the back of the Government deposit growth with the Bulgarian National Bank and reflected the new issue of seven-year and twelve-year euro-denominated government bonds."

"The consolidated budget balance was positive at 915.2 million leva (1 per cent of projected GDP) on a cash basis at the end of February, as both the national budget and the EU funds account registered surpluses. By contrast, CFP reported a deficit at 0.1 per cent of GDP in February 2015," the report reads.