The Ministry of Finance expects stable economic growth in Bulgaria in the second quarter of 2023, despite the fact that current data show a decrease in industrial production and a slowdown in economic growth to 1.8%.
The economic growth rate is expected to remain steady in the third quarter, with a decline in demand for services and retail sales in the next three months. The inflation forecast says that there will be a slight acceleration of the annual inflation rate according to the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) in the third quarter of 2023, due entirely to services in the summer tourist season.
Regarding the generalised increase in interest rates perpetrated by both the US Federal Reserve Board (FRB) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to cope with rising inflation, interest rates in Bulgaria are expected to remain more or less unchanged.