| Bulgarian economy goes down but average salaries are increasing Bulgaria's economy shrank by a 4.9 % y-o-y in the II quarter of 2009 and 4.2 % for the I half of the year, the country's Statistics Institute said. In the I quarter, the GDP was 3.5 % down compared to the same period of 2008. In real numbers during the II quarter GDP was 16.3 billion leva and first-half GDP was 30.3 billion leva.
In 2008, the Bulgarian economy grew by 7.1 % in the II quarter and the first half of the year. The country officially entered a recession in the first quarter of 2009.
The most was going down industry, 9.7 % y-o-y for the first half of the year, respectively the agriculture shrank by 5.8 %. The services sector shows an annual increase of 1.9 %.
Consumption was down an annual 4.5 % cent in the first half and investments 15.4 %. Export shrank 16.5 % in January-June, while import was down by 22.7 % respectively.
Amid the economic crisis and constant announcements of cutting staff and ending production, the National Statistical Institute announced that salaries in Bulgaria had increased in the II quarter of the year by 15.3 % on average compared to the figures from the corresponding period in 2008. In the public sector, the rise was 16.9 %, in the private sector 14.3 %. The largest increase of 26.8 % was registered in the culture, sports and entertainment sector, followed by construction with increase of 26.2 %. The lowest rate of increase was in the scientific research sector, 3.8 %, and mining and manufacturing 2.8 %. Employees of the finance sector are the highest paid employees with an average monthly salary of 1355 leva, followed by people employed in the electric supply and heating sector with 1321 leva and the media sector with 934 leva a month.
Tourism has long been described as an important part in the country's long term economic strategy, but the lowest wages were registered in the hotel sector, 387 leva a month, administrative support 425 leva and agriculture 446 leva a month. | | |
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