Bulgaria's GDP Grew 3.4% in Q3, 2016

Year-on-year growth of Bulgaria's national output was 3.4% in the third quarter of this year, statistics show.

At current prices, GDP stood at BGN 25.336 B (EUR 12.954 M) for the period between July and September.

Quarter-on-quarter, this is a 0.7% increase, the National Statistics Institute (NSI) says in its preliminary data on the economy, released Tuesday.

GDP per person amounted to BGN 3548 in the third quarter.

In USD ters at average quaterly exchange rate of BGN 1.75152 per USD 1, GDP was USD 14.465 B, or USD 2026 per person.

In Euro terms, it was EUR 12.954 B or EUR 1815 per person.

Gross added value (GVA) at current prices was BGN 21.91 B.

The share of the agricultural sector in the GVA decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 7.3% compared to the third quarter of 2015, the NSI said.

The industrial sector increased its share by 1.4 percentage points, to 28.9%, compared to the same period of last year.

Services' share went down by 0.7 percentage points to 63.8% compared to the third quarter of 2015.

The final consumption expenditure formed 68.8% of GDP in the third quater of 2016, while investments (gross fixed capital formation) formed 18.5%.

The external balance was posittive.

According to the seasonally adjusted data, GDP in the third quarter of 2016 increased by 0.7% compared with the previous quarter. In the third quarter of 2016 gross value added of the total economy rose by 0.6%.

According to the preliminary estimates of GDP by final expenditure, in the third quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter the final consumption increases by 0.5%. For the same period, gross fixed capital formation decreases by 0.9%.

In the third quarter of 2016, the exports of goods and services increase is 3.0%. During the same period, imports of goods and services increase by 2.7% over the previous quarter.

On an annual basis, GVA went down 2.4% compared to the same quarter of 2015.

The biggest increase was in arts, entertainment and recreation and repair of household goods and other services (7.9%), followed by information and communication (7.3%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles nad motorcycles, transportation, and accommodation (4.9%).

Final consumption grew by 0.2%, while exports and imports of goods and services were up 9.5% a and 7.5% respectively compared to July-September 2015.