Bulgaria
Basic information
- Area: 110,910 km²
- Calling code: +359
- Population (EST): 7,640,238
- Official language: Bulgarian
- Time zone: EET (UTC+2)
Overview
The Republic of Bulgaria is located in the south east of Europe and is bordered by Romania, Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey and the Black Sea. The countries population, according an estimate by the IMF for 2008 was just over 7.5 million, which also showed a small but steady overall decline since 2004. Once a Warsaw pact signatory, in 2004 Bulgaria joined NATO and in 2007 became a member state of the European Union. In recent years tourism has started to become a growth area that the Bulgarian authorities are realising has great potential for the economy, with the increase in tourism also comes interest in the property market. For some year`s foreign nationals have been buying residential properties in Bulgaria at very low prices, however as more people discover the country prices will rise injecting more capital into the economy. The CIA World Factbook shows that in mid 2006 Bulgaria`s workforce by occupation comprised of nearly 58% services, just over 33.5% industry and the remainder being agriculture. Since the end of Communism, Bulgaria has slowly started to see improvements in the quality of life for its citizens especially in the cities, as the infrastructure improves people are able to take advantage of better transport and facilities.
