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Maintaining the pace for more reforms
 In the past two years, the country has pulled itself back from the abyss of economic and financial disaster. Its success in stabilising the economy in the wake of the collapse of the banking system and the lurch into hyperinflation in early 1997 has exceeded most expectations. ...more
FOREIGN POLICY:
Still hurdles to overcome
Bulgaria remains well behind the first group of fast track reform countries in central and east Europe that have already entered formal negotiations on joining the European Union. However, it has begun to close the gap during the past two years. ...more
POWER:
International profile gets a lift
Ivan Kostov, Bulgaria's centre-right prime minister, is not quite halfway through his four-year term. But his coalition government has already outlasted many of its predecessors in the stormy political decade which followed the collapse of communism. ...more
BANKING:
Big push towards privatisation
Bulgaria is preparing to sell three profitable state-owned banks this year, with the aim of speeding recovery in the sector after the disastrous collapse of half the country's banks less than three years ago. ...more
IMF:
Currency board is a boost to stability
For the past two years, Bulgaria has provided the economic success story the International Monetary Fund has so lacked in other parts of the world, as emerging markets have lurched from one crisis to another. ...more
AGRICULTURE:
Ploughing more in investment
Bulgaria's pro-market government has set aside traditional Balkan misgivings about the sale of land to foreigners and is actively seeking investment in the agricultural sector. ...more
TOURISM:
Emphasis on promotion and marketing
Facing tough competition from neighbouring countries such as Turkey and Greece, and from the rising travel market of Croatia, Bulgaria's tourism industry is awakening to the reality that its long-term future cannot rely only on sun-and-sea or skiing package holidays. ...more
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