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Industry Watch poll of forecasters envisages 6% economic growth in 2007.
This is the 6th time that we launch a macroeconomic forecasting poll among leading Bulgarian economists. That is the first independent source of economic forecast which can serve as benchmark for the outlook of the government and of the international institutions.This fall we update our spring forecast, based on poll among leadi... -
Corporate tax rate down to 10% in 2007
The ruling coalition agreed to a 1/3 reduction of the corporate tax rate. Effective from January 1st 2007, the rate will be 10%, from the current 15%. The vote in the budget and finance committee of the parliament was supported by opposition parties. The Ministry of Finance insisted on 12% rate, but the political consensus in th... -
Economic Growth Stays at 5.5% in the Year to June.
In Q2 2006 economic growth was 6.6% in real terms (on the basis of Q2 2005). The registered nominal growth (measured in euro) is significantly higher than previous periods due to the quick inflation of the euro - the reserve currency of Bulgarian lev.... -
Pension industry grows by 34% in the year to June.
Pension industry is currently among the most dynamic sectors in the economy despite heavy regulation and slow reform of the pay-as-you go system. By mid-2006 private funds manage some 640 mln euro, or 34% more than a year before.Employers reacted positively to the pension-tax cuts in 2006. Registered employment grows at a steady... -
Data for private sector wages supports the tax-cut policy.
Those are some of the results from reduced tax rates on labor contracts. The reduction of social insurance burden by 6 percentage points effectively led to a decrease in tax burden of about 4 percentage points, measured by that part of labor cost which goes to the budget.Those effects were in part already known, as the date for ... -
Tax burden will most likely exceed 40% of GDP in 2006.
Budget surplus will again question the political goal of attaining a tax burden 40% of GDP. This goal has been set both in the mid-term budget forecast and in the agreement of the three-party coalition. If the tendency from the first six months remains the same, we can forecast an additional 1.2 billion BGN of revenues, which ... -
The fast inflation of the euro is resulting in higher than expected tax revenues in Bulgaria.
The current government was the first make bold to cut the most economically damaging tax – the obligatory security contributions in the state social funds. The results for the moment are positive – the revenues from contributions remained stable in nominal terms for the first five months of the year as this decision gave valuab... -
Comments on latest BoP data.
Current account deficit widened by 91% in Q1 of 2006 compared to Q1 of 2005 to reach EUR -1 052 million. At the same time the financial account balance went down by -44% to EUR 570 million. Thus domestic savings rate continued to decrease. For 2005 it was 16.2% of GDP compared to 17.6% in 2004. Both exports and imports of goods ...