Bulgaria : A Changing Poverty Profile
Bulgaria's economic progress in recent years has been notable. Since 1997, the country has implemented a range of structural reforms alongside substantive fiscal and sectoral reforms. Measures have included the introduction of a currency board...
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Format: | Publication |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2013
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/10/15639483/bulgaria-changing-poverty-profile-poverty-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13971 |
Summary: | Bulgaria's economic progress in
recent years has been notable. Since 1997, the country has
implemented a range of structural reforms alongside
substantive fiscal and sectoral reforms. Measures have
included the introduction of a currency board to stabilize
the lev and more aggressive privatization of large state
owned enterprises. These developments have led to a
significant turnaround from the period of economic crisis in
1996-1997, which was marked by a decline in real Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) of 18 percent and annual inflation of
579 percent in 1997. Growth resumed in 1998 and has been
sustained. Bulgaria's current government, which took
office in July 2001, has affirmed its commitment to the
objectives of macrostability, including a continuation of
the currency board and market reforms. Poverty in 2001 has
become more concentrated among distinct and identifiable
groups within the population than in previous years. In this
regard, the profile of poverty in Bulgaria has come to
resemble poverty patterns in other countries in Central and
Eastern European countries more closely. The strong link
between unemployment and poverty, and the emergence of
children and households in rural areas as high poverty risk
groups, as well as ethnic minorities are features of poverty
common to ED accession countries. While the concentration of
poverty among specific groups indicates that targeting
interventions to address poverty in Bulgaria will be easier,
on the other hand, these pockets of chronic poverty are more
resilient and harder to reach than shallower poverty linked
to transient declines in incomes. These developments
highlight the need for a long term commitment to poverty
reduction in Bulgaria which will require continuity in
policy, as well as on-going monitoring and evaluation. |
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