officials from Ministry of Economy said. According to the report, within the nine months of 2000 Bulgaria realised 53% of its total export on the West European markets, which means 21.8% growth in export figures as compared to the same period of 1999. For the first nine months of 2000 the deficit in our foreign trade operations reached USD 293.3 mln against USD 396.7 mln in the year-ago period. 94% is the share of industrial commodities in the total export to EU countries in the Jan-Sept period.