Bulgarian industrial enterprises plan to slash their investment by 21.8% this year, compared to 2019, the country’s statistical office, NSI, said on Monday.
In 2020, the largest part of investments, 37.0%, is expected to be made by producers of intermediate goods, the NSI said in a statement, citing the results of a survey of business activity conducted in March.
Second in terms of planned investment are companies operating in the energy and water sectors with an expected share of 31.8% of total investment, followed by industries producing non-durable goods with a share of 17.1%.
The expenditures for acquiring fixed tangible and intangible assets in industry were unchanged last year, compared to 2018, NSI said.
Bulgaria is in a two-month state of emergency due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, until May 13. The country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) could decrease by 10% in 2020, according to a baseline scenario of the assumed impact of the pandemic on the economy, Belgium-based financial group KBC said last month.
“Specifically, our simulations assume that economic activity will not recover until the third quarter. As a result, the corona crisis will lead to a very severe recession in the first half of the year, much stronger than we and other economists had predicted until recently,” KBC also said back then.
