1991 Edition
CIA World Factbook 1991 (Project Gutenberg)
Geography
Climate
temperate; cold, damp winters; hot, dry summers
Coastline
354 km
Comparative area
slightly larger than Tennessee
Disputes
Macedonia question with Greece and Yugoslavia
Environment
subject to earthquakes, landslides; deforestation; air pollution
Land boundaries
1,881 km total; Greece 494 km, Romania 608 km, Turkey 240 km, Yugoslavia 539 km
Land use
arable land 34%; permanent crops 3%; meadows and pastures 18%; forest and woodland 35%; other 10%; includes irrigated 11%
Maritime claims
Contiguous zone: 24 nm; Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm; Territorial sea: 12 nm
Natural resources
bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, coal, timber, arable land
Note
strategic location near Turkish Straits; controls key land routes from Europe to Middle East and Asia
Terrain
mostly mountains with lowlands in north and south
Total area
110,910 km2; land area: 110,550 km2
People and Society
Birth rate
13 births/1,000 population (1991)
Death rate
12 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
Ethnic divisions
Bulgarian 85.3%, Turk 8.5%, Gypsy 2.6%, Macedonian 2.5%, Armenian 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, other 0.6%
Infant mortality rate
13 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
Labor force
4,300,000; industry 33%, agriculture 20%, other 47% (1987)
Language
Bulgarian; secondary languages closely correspond to ethnic breakdown
Life expectancy at birth
69 years male, 76 years female (1991)
Literacy
93% (male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can read and write (1970 est.)
Nationality
noun--Bulgarian(s); adjective--Bulgarian
Net migration rate
- 3 migrants/1,000 population (1991)
Organized labor
Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB); Edinstvo (Unity) People's Trade Union (splinter confederation from KNSB); Podkrepa (Support) Labor Confederation, legally registered in January 1990
Population
8,910,622 (July 1991), growth rate - 0.2% (1991)
Religion
Bulgarian Orthodox 85%; Muslim 13%; Jewish 0.8%; Roman Catholic 0.5%; Uniate Catholic 0.2%; Protestant, Gregorian-Armenian, and other 0.5%
Total fertility rate
1.9 children born/woman (1991)
Government
Administrative divisions
9 provinces (oblasti, singular--oblast); Burgas, Grad Sofiya, Khaskovo, Lovech, Mikhaylovgrad, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Sofiya, Varna
Capital
Sofia
Communists
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), 501,793 members
Constitution
16 May 1971, effective 18 May 1971; a new constitution is likely to be adopted in 1991
Diplomatic representation
Ambassador Ognyan PISHEV; Chancery at 1621 22nd Street NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 387-7969; US--Ambassador H. Kenneth HILL; Embassy at 1 Alexander Stamboliski Boulevard, Sofia (mailing address is APO New York 09213-5740); telephone [359] (2) 88-48-01 through 05
Elections
Chairman of the State Council--last held 1 August 1990 (next to be held May 1991); results--Zhelyo ZHELEV was elected by the National Assembly; National Assembly--last held 10 and 17 June 1990 (next to be held in autumn 1991); results--BSP 48%, UDF 32%; seats--(400 total) BSP 211, UDF 144, Rights and Freedoms Movement 23, Agrarian Party 16, Nationalist parties 3, independents and other 3
Executive branch
president, chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier), three deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers
Flag
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red; the national emblem formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe has been removed--it contained a rampant lion within a wreath of wheat ears below a red five-pointed star and above a ribbon bearing the dates 681 (first Bulgarian state established) and 1944 (liberation from Nazi control)
Independence
22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)
Judicial branch
Supreme Court
Leaders
Chief of State--President Zhelyu ZHELEV (since 1 August 1990); Head of Government--Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) Dimitur POPOV (since 19 December 1990); Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Aleksandur TOMOV (since 19 December 1990); Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Viktor VULKOV (since 19 December 1990); Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Dimitur LUDZHEV (since 19 December 1990);
Legal system
based on civil law system, with Soviet law influence; judicial review of legislative acts in the State Council; has accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Legislative branch
unicameral National Assembly (Narodno Sobranie)
Long-form name
Republic of Bulgaria
Member of
BIS, CCC, CSCE, ECE, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBEC, ICAO, IIB, ILO, IMO, INMARSAT, IOC, ISO, ITU, LORCS, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
National holiday
Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire, 3 March (1878)
Other political or pressure groups
Ecoglasnost; Podkrepa (Support) Labor Confederation; Fatherland Union; Bulgarian Democratic Youth (formerly Communist Youth Union); Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB); Committee for Defense of National Interests; Peasant Youth League; National Coalition of Extraparliamentary Political Forces; numerous regional, ethnic, and national interest groups with various agendas
Political parties and leaders
government--Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), Aleksandur LILOV, chairman; opposition--Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), Filip DIMITROV, chairman, consisting of Nikola Petkov Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, Milan DRENCHEV, secretary of Permanent Board; Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, Petur DERTLIEV; Green Party; Christian Democrats; Radical Democratic Party; Rights and Freedoms Movement (pro-Muslim party), Ahmed DOGAN; Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BZNS), Viktor VULKOV
Suffrage
universal and compulsory at age 18
Type
emerging democracy, continuing significant Communist party influence
Economy
Agriculture
accounts for 15% of GNP; climate and soil conditions support livestock raising and the growing of various grain crops, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and tobacco; more than one-third of the arable land devoted to grain; world's fourth-largest tobacco exporter; surplus food producer
Budget
revenues $26 billion; expenditures $28 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA billion (1988)
Currency
lev (plural--leva); 1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki
Economic aid
donor--$1.6 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist less developed countries (1956-89)
Electricity
11,500,000 kW capacity; 45,000 million kWh produced, 5,040 kWh per capita (1990)
Exchange rates
leva (Lv) per US$1--16.13 (March 1991), 0.7446 (November 1990), 0.84 (1989), 0.82 (1988), 0.90 (1987), 0.95 (1986), 1.03 (1985); note--floating exchange rate since February 1990
Exports
$16.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989); commodities--machinery and equipment 60.5%; agricultural products 14.7%; manufactured consumer goods 10.6%; fuels, minerals, raw materials, and metals 8.5%; other 5.7%; partners--Communist countries 82.5% (USSR 61%, GDR 5.5%, Czechoslovakia 4.9%); developed countries 6.8% (FRG 1.2%, Greece 1.0%); less developed countries 10.7% (Libya 3.5%, Iraq 2.9%)
External debt
$10 billion (1990)
Fiscal year
calendar year
GNP
$47.3 billion, per capita $5,300; real growth rate - 6.0% (1990)
Imports
$15.0 billion (f.o.b., 1989); commodities--fuels, minerals, and raw materials 45.2%; machinery and equipment 39.8%; manufactured consumer goods 4.6%; agricultural products 3.8%; other 6.6%; partners--Communist countries 80.5% (USSR 57.5%, GDR 5.7%), developed countries 15.1% (FRG 4.8%, Austria 1.6%); less developed countries 4.4% (Libya 1.0%, Brazil 0.9%)
Industrial production
growth rate - 10.7% (1990); accounts for about 50% of GDP
Industries
machine and metal building,food processing, chemicals, textiles, building materials, ferrous and nonferrous metals
Inflation rate (consumer prices)
100% (1990 est.)
Overview
Growth in the lackluster Bulgarian economy fell to the 2% annual level in the 1980s. By 1990 Sofia's foreign debt had skyrocketed to over $10 billion--giving a debt service ratio of more than 40% of hard currency earnings and leading the regime to declare a moratorium on its hard currency payments. The post-Zhivkov regime faces major problems of renovating an aging industrial plant; coping with worsening energy, food, and consumer goods shortages; keeping abreast of rapidly unfolding technological developments; investing in additional energy capacity (the portion of electric power from nuclear energy reached over one-third in 1990); and motivating workers, in part by giving them a share in the earnings of their enterprises. A major decree of January 1989 summarized and extended the government's economic restructuring efforts, which include a partial decentralization of controls over production decisions and foreign trade. In October 1990 the Lukanov government proposed an economic reform program based on a US Chamber of Commerce study. It was never instituted because of a political stalemate between the BSP and the UDF. The new Popov government launched a similar reform program in January 1991, but full implementation has been slowed by continuing political disputes.
Unemployment rate
2% (1990 est.)
Communications
Airports
380 total, 380 usable; about 120 with permanent-surface runways; 20 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 20 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Civil air
86 major transport aircraft
Highways
36,908 km total; 33,535 km hard surface (including 242 km superhighways); 3,373 km earth roads (1987)
Inland waterways
470 km (1987)
Merchant marine
112 ships (1,000 GRT and over) totaling 1,227,817 GRT/1,860,294 DWT; includes 2 short-sea passenger, 33 cargo, 2 container, 1 passenger-cargo training, 6 roll-on/roll-off, 18 petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL) tanker, 1 chemical carrier, 2 railcar carrier, 47 bulk; Bulgaria owns 3 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 51,035 DWT operating under Liberian registry
Pipelines
crude, 193 km; refined product, 418 km; natural gas, 1,400 km (1986)
Ports
Burgas, Varna, Varna West; river ports are Ruse, Vidin, and Lom on the Danube
Railroads
4,300 km total, all government owned (1987); 4,055 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 245 km narrow gauge; 917 km double track; 2,510 km electrified
Telecommunications
2.5 million telephones; direct dialing to 36 countries; phone density is 25 phones per 100 persons; 67% of Sofia households now have a phone (November 1988); stations--21 AM, 16 FM, and 19 TV, with 1 Soviet TV relay in Sofia; 2.1 million TV sets (1990); 92% of country receives No. 1 television program (May 1990)
Military and Security
Branches
Bulgarian People's Army, Bulgarian Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Frontier Troops, Civil Defense
Defense expenditures
1.615 billion leva, NA% of GDP (1990); note--conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using the current exchange rate would produce misleading results _%_
Manpower availability
males 15-49, 2,183,539; 1,826,992 fit for military service; 67,836 reach military age (19) annually