The government, consisting of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP, formerly known as the Simeon II National Movement) and the mainly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), will struggle to maintain unity in 2008-09, given low public support for the NMSP and the emergence of a new centre-right party, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB), under the guidance of Boiko Borisov, the popular mayor of the capital, Sofia. The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that real GDP growth will decline from 6.3% in 2007 to 5.8% in 2009. The average rate of inflation is forecast to decline to 6.2% in 2008 and to 4% in 2009, compared with 7.4% in 2007. Rapid import growth is expected to keep the current-account deficit high over the forecast period, and is estimated to reach over 18% of GDP in 2007. |
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| Key Reports Available for Bulgaria |
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| Total area | | 111,002 sq km, of which 28% is arable land and 33% forest | | Population | | 7.64m (estimate from mid-2007) | | Main cities | | Population in '000 (December 2007) (a) | | Sofia (capital) 1,241 Stara Zagora 356 | | Plovdiv 705 Blagoevgrad 329 | | Varna 460 Pleven 298 | | Burgas 420 Pazardzhik 294 | | (a) Population figures relate to planning districts (oblasts) rather than cities. | | Climate | | Continental | | Weather in Sofia (altitude 550 metres) | | Hottest month, July, average temperature 21°C; coldest month, January, average temperature -2.3°C; driest month, April, 18 mm average rainfall; wettest month, June, 91 mm average rainfall | | Language | | Bulgarian | | Weights and measures | | Metric system | | Currency | | Lev (Lv)=100 stotinki; the plural of lev is leva. In July 1997 the lev was pegged to the D-mark at Lv1,000:DM1; in January 1999 it was repegged to the euro at Lv1,955.83:€1 and in July 1999 it was redenominated (at the euro equivalent of parity with the D-mark, of Lv1.95583:€1). Average exchange rates in 2007: Lv1.43:US$1; Lv1.96:€1. Average exchange rates in May 2008: Lv1.26:US$1; Lv1.96:€1 | | Time | | 2 hours ahead of GMT in winter; 3 hours ahead in summer | | Fiscal year | | Calendar year |
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