Bulgaria’s Feb’18 CA surplus at 0.4% of GDP; the FDI 82% lower YoY

Bulgaria’s Feb’18 current account came to a surplus of EUR 218.1m (0.4% of GDP), vs a EUR 244.6m (0.5% of the GDP) for the same period of 2017. The trade balance came out negative at EUR 263.8m (0.5% of the GDP), compared to a deficit of EUR 94.4m (0.2% of the GDP) a year earlier. February exports decreased marginally by 0.8% YoY, reaching EUR 2b (3.8% of GDP) while imports grew by 7.4% YoY to EUR 2.2bn. Financial account closed at positive EUR 283.2m as compared to the negative EUR 71.2m in the same month of 2017. The FDI dropped by 82% YoY to EUR 45.9m. The fall in FDI resulted from all types of investment with most significant decrease coming from debt instruments – down 76%.