According to the National Statistical Institute (NSI), GDP grew by 6.2% in real terms year-on-year in the first quarter, exceeding expectations and the 5.5% growth of the same period last year. First quarter GDP reached 5.872bn euros.
Bulgaria’s GDP grew 6.1% last year, from 6.2% in 2005 and 6.6% in 2004. The government expects that growth will average over 6% in the coming years.
Earlier this month, John Lipksy, the IMF first deputy managing director, concluded his visit to Bulgaria, and in a statement in Sofia, confirmed that the IMF expected growth to match government expectations and disinflation to continue. Indeed, the organisation forecasts 6% growth for 2007, and for inflation to fall from 7.4% in 2006 to 4.6% this year.
However, Lipsky’s upbeat statement came with the caveat that strong growth has increased the current account deficit due to boosted demand. Bulgaria’s currency board arrangement with the euro means that it forfeits monetary policy, thereby losing a key tool for reducing the deficit.
The IMF adjusted its forecast for the 2007 current account deficit to 16.6% from 15.7% after export growth failed to meet the increase in imports. Exports grew 4.1% in the first two months of 2007, while imports grew 15.9%.
“The large current account deficit, projected to increase further this year, poses risks,” warned Lipsky. “While the widening of the deficit reflects confidence in Bulgaria’s future, it also implies an increase in the country’s vulnerability to external shocks. I urge the government to maintain the prudent stance of fiscal policy that has served the country well.”
This could be seen as a shot across the bows of the government, which is led and dominated by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). In May’s elections to the European Parliament, the BSP came second, narrowly beaten by a dynamic new force in Bulgarian politics, Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), led by popular and fervently anti-BSP Sofia mayor Boyko Borissov, and local elections loom later this year.
The IMF has in the past been critical of the government’s decision to cut the corporate tax rate to 10%, the lowest in the EU (along with that of Cyprus).
As IMF European Director Michael Deppler told OBG, “Low marginal tax rates are of course important [in ensuring economic competitiveness]. However, 2007 was perhaps not the best time to cut corporate taxes. First, with the 2007 budget buffeted by EU-related forces, private sector demand buoyant and the former 15% rate already relatively attractive to investors, the cut could have been postponed, with little harm. Second, corporate taxes tend to be less important to investors than many other factors, some of which require public spending, which in turn requires tax revenues.”
Deppler cautioned that, while most markets in Central and Eastern Europe run a current account deficit, at more than 16%, Bulgaria’s is particularly worrying.
However, the market seems fairly unperturbed by the issue and businesspeople who spoke to OBG were almost universally supportive of the tax cut. Last year, the current account deficit was partly offset by the 4.1bn euros of FDI the country took in. Analysts expect the figure to be at least that high in 2007.
Yarkin Cebeci, emerging markets analyst at JP Morgan, told local press that “high investment appetite” would continue, with the new corporate tax giving “additional impetus” by encouraging parts of the “grey economy” to come into the open, now that it is cheaper to do so.
In order to combat the current account deficit, the government is running a cautious fiscal policy that targets a small budget surplus and usually overperforms. This year will be no exception. The government is aiming for a 0.8% budget surplus, but Plamen Oresharski, the finance minister, said that 2% was a more realistic year-end surplus target.
