Low productivity and competitiveness on the European and world markets alike due to inadequate R&D funding, however, still remain a significant obstacle for foreign investment.

[43][44][45] In the interwar period, there was considerable economic modernization in Bulgaria's agricultural sector, setting the conditions for rapid growth after World War II.

Still, the Bulgarian economy made significant overall progress in modernizing road infrastructure, airline transportation, as well as developing the tourism sector by building tourist resorts along the Black Sea coast and the mountain regions.

From the end of World War II until the widespread change of regime in Eastern Europe in November 1989, the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) exerted complete economic, social and political control in Bulgaria.

That was made possible by changes in party leadership, programme, reduction of its power base and other moves which permitted economic re-orientation toward a market system.

The reforms included introduction of a currency board regime, which was agreed to with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and allowed the economy to stabilize.

The loan was used to develop financial markets, improve social safety net programmes, strengthen the tax system, reform agricultural and energy sectors, and further liberalise trade.

The European Commission, in its 2002 country report, recognised Bulgaria as a functioning market economy, acknowledging the progress made by Prime Minister Ivan Kostov's government toward market-oriented reforms.

In April 1997, the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) won pre-term parliamentary elections and introduced an IMF currency board system which succeeded in stabilizing the economy.

The government of Boyko Borisov elected in 2009 undertook steps to restore economic growth, while attempting to maintain a strict financial policy.

[59] The fiscal discipline set by Finance Minister Djankov proved successful and together with reduced budget spending it placed Bulgarian economy on the stage of steadily though slowly growing in the midst of world crisis.

[61][62] The 2012 Transatlantic Trends poll found that 72 percent of Bulgarians did not approve of the economic policy pursued by the government of the (then) ruling center-right GERB party and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

[63] In 2024 Bulgaria is making final preparations to adopt the Euro and depending on the inflation rate during the year, the country has a chance of joining the Eurozone in 2025.

Growth in ferrous metallurgy, which is dominated by the Kremikovtsi Metals Combine, has been delayed by a complex privatization process and by obsolete capital equipment.

Non-ferrous metallurgy has prospered because the Pirdop copper smelting plant was bought by Union Minière of Belgium and because export markets have been favourable.

In the early 2000s, the industry's plan for survival has included upgrading products to satisfy Western markets and doing cooperative manufacturing with Russian companies.

The domestic power-generating industry, which was privatized in 2004 by sales to interests from Europe, Japan, Russia, and the United States, suffers from obsolete equipment and a weak oversight agency.

Bulgaria's only significant coal resource is low-quality lignite, mainly from the state-owned Maritsa-Iztok and Bobov Dol complexes and used in local thermoelectric power stations.

[67] Production of the most important crops (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization) in 2006 (in '000 tons) amounted to: wheat 3301.9; sunflower 1196.6; maize 1587.8; grapes 266.2; tobacco 42.0; tomatoes 213.0; barley 546.3; potatoes 386.1; peppers 156.7; cucumbers 61.5; cherries 18.2; watermelons 136.0; cabbage 72.7; apples 26.1; plums 18.0; strawberries 8.8.

[104] The rising global prices of gold, lead and copper in 2010, as well as investments in zinc and coal production, have boosted economic growth in the mining sector after the Great Recession.

[110][111] The "Elatsite" copper mine and reprocessing facility, built during Vulko Chervenkov's rule, takes its place as one of the largest in South-Eastern Europe.

The largest refineries for lead and zinc operate in Plovdiv, Kardzhali and Novi Iskar; for copper in Pirdop and Eliseina (now defunct); for aluminium in Shumen.

[127][128] Nevertheless, Bulgaria ranked 8th in the world in 2002 by total number of ICT specialists, outperforming countries with far larger populations,[129] and it operates the only supercomputer in the Balkan region,[130] an IBM Blue Gene/P, which entered service in September 2008.

In this way, Bulgaria will be among other European countries with their satellites, namely Belarus, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

After the Great Recession Bulgaria turned to policy of deficit spending and at the end of 2013 the state debt rose up to 7.219 billion euro, representing 18.1% of the GDP.

In 1999, Bulgaria joined the Central European Free-Trade Agreement (CEFTA), with whose members (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia; Macedonia was added in 2006) it has established important trade relations.

At the end of 2005, Bulgaria reported an external debt of US$15.2 billion, an increase in value but a decrease as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) compared with 2002 and previous years.

Union Minière, a Belgian mining company, bought the large Pirdop copper-smelting plant, giving an important boost to Bulgarian nonferrous metallurgy.

A three-company Israeli consortium agreed in 2004 to work with the domestic Overgas company (which is half-owned by Gazprom) on a major natural-gas distribution network in Bulgaria.

This article incorporates public domain material Bulgaria country profile (October 2006) from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Federal Research Division.