Bulgaria's Business Climate, Industry Forecasts Improve in January

Bulgaria's composite business climate index improved by 1.9% in January compared with December 2010.

The index is already 6.6 percentage points over its lowest value in the past two years, according to data of the National Statistical Institute.

The improvement is largely due to the increase of the business climate in industry by 4.2% compared with December 2010 because of the managers' better expectations for the next six months.

The indicator for production activity of the Bulgarian industry declined in January as a result of an increase of the number of the factories preserving their level of output and decline in the number of plants increasing their production.

However, most of the managers expect positive developments in the next 3-6 months based on export deals.

The average rate of occupation of the total capacity of Bulgarian industrial plants is at 70.5%.

The insufficient demand and the still insecure economic environment are considered the major risk factors for Bulgaria's industrial sector.

In January 2011, Bulgaria's business climate in construction improved by 0.5% thanks to positive expectations for the coming months.

Bulgaria's retail trade index retains its levels from December 2010 as the managers do not expect a growth of domestic consumption in the coming months.

Bulgaria's services sector saw its business climate index go up by 0.4% in January on a monthly basis.