Ethnic divisions: Bulgarian 85.3%, Turk 8.5%, Gypsy 2.6%,
Macedonian 2.5%, Armenian 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, other 0.6%
Religion: Bulgarian Orthodox 85%; Muslim 13%; Jewish 0.8%;
Roman Catholic 0.5%; Uniate Catholic 0.2%; Protestant,
Gregorian-Armenian, and other 0.5%
Language: Bulgarian; secondary languages closely correspond to
ethnic breakdown
Literacy: 93% (male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can
read and write (1970 est.)
Labor force: 4,300,000; industry 33%, agriculture 20%, other 47%
(1987)
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
GOVERNMENT
Long-form name: Republic of Bulgaria
Type: emerging democracy, continuing significant Communist party
influence
Capital: Sofia
Administrative divisions: 9 provinces (oblasti, singular--oblast);
Burgas, Grad Sofiya, Khaskovo, Lovech, Mikhaylovgrad, Plovdiv, Razgrad,
Sofiya, Varna
Independence: 22 September 1908 (from Ottoman Empire)
Constitution: 16 May 1971, effective 18 May 1971; a new
constitution is likely to be adopted in 1991
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
National holiday: Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire,
3 March (1878)
Executive branch: president, chairman of the Council of Ministers
(premier), three deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers,
Council of Ministers
Legislative branch: unicameral National Assembly (Narodno
Sobranie)
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);
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
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
Communists: Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly
Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), 501,793 members
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
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
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
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)
ECONOMY
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.
GNP: $47.3 billion, per capita $5,300; real growth rate - 6.0%
(1990)
Budget: revenues $26 billion; expenditures $28 billion,
including capital expenditures of $NA billion (1988)
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%)
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%)
External debt: $10 billion (1990)
Industrial production: growth rate - 10.7% (1990); accounts for
about 50% of GDP
Electricity: 11,500,000 kW capacity; 45,000 million kWh produced,
5,040 kWh per capita (1990)
Industries: machine and metal building,food processing, chemicals,
textiles, building materials, ferrous and nonferrous metals
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
Economic aid: donor--$1.6 billion in bilateral aid to non-Communist
less developed countries (1956-89)
Currency: lev (plural--leva); 1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki
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
Fiscal year: calendar year
COMMUNICATIONS
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
Highways: 36,908 km total; 33,535 km hard surface (including 242 km
superhighways); 3,373 km earth roads (1987)
Ports: Burgas, Varna, Varna West; river ports are Ruse, Vidin, and
Lom on the Danube
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
Civil air: 86 major transport aircraft
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
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)
DEFENSE FORCES
Branches: Bulgarian People's Army, Bulgarian Navy, Air and Air
Defense Forces, Frontier Troops, Civil Defense
Manpower availability: males 15-49, 2,183,539; 1,826,992 fit for
military service; 67,836 reach military age (19) annually
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
