Bulgaria's 5-mo c/a gap widens to 1.7%/GDP
Bulgaria's current account deficit was equivalent to a preliminary 1.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) projected for 2012 in the five months through May, up from 0.3% of GDP a year earlier, the central bank said.
At the end of May, the current account showed a deficit of 671.6 million euro ($818 million), compared to a gap of 99.9 million euro a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement on Monday.
Bulgaria posted a trade deficit of 1.65 billion euro through May, equivalent to 4.2% of the projected GDP. In the first five months of 2011 the country ran a trade deficit of 668.8 million euro.
Exports edged up by 0.9% on the year to 8.13 billion euro in the first five months of 2012, while imports rose by 12.1% to 9.8 billion euro.
Foreign direct investments (FDI) in Bulgaria totalled 473.8 million euro through May, equivalent to 1.2% of the projected GDP, up from 72.2 million euro a year earlier.