Bulgaria’s economy grew by 7.1 per cent year-on-year in the first six months of 2008, in real terms, to 29.43 billion leva or 15.05 billion euro, provisional data from the National Statiscal Institute showed on September 15.

The gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of the year also grew by 7.1 per cent to 15.94 billion leva. Per capita GDP in the second quarter was 2082 leva or 1064 euro, while for the first half of the year the per capita figure was 3842 leva or 1964 euro.

The industrial sector rose by 7.4 per cent over the first six months of the year, compared to the same period of 2007, but as a share of the economy, it continued losing weight and accounted for 32 per cent of the final GDP figure, a decrease of two percentage points over January-July.

Services accounted for 61.7 per cent of GDP, up from 60.4 per cent in the first half of 2007. The sector grew by seven per cent in the first six months of 2008.

Agruculture, which recovered this year from last year’s poor harvest, caused by flooding and drought, posted an increase to 6.3 per cent of final GDP, compared to 5.6 per cent in the first six months of last year. The sector grew by 6.5 per cent.

The growth in total consumption in the first half slowed down to 4.7 per cent, compared to 5.5 per cent in the same period of last year. Household consumption growth decreased from 6.2 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

Bulgaria’s trade gap in January-July period rose 35.7 per cent year-on-year to eight billion leva, the equivalent of 27.2 per cent of GDP.

The Cabinet targets 6.4 per cent economic growth for 2008, the same target it set last year, when end-year GDP growth was 6.2 per cent. First-quarter economic growth last year was 5.5 per cent, followed by increases of 6.5, 5.9 and 6.9 per cent, respectively, in the other quarters of 2007.