Economy of Bulgaria, Its People, Culture & Flag

The population of Bulgaria is made up of 85 percent of ethnic Bulgarian and 9 percent of Turkish people. The remaining 6 percent is made up of small groups of Armenians, Roma (Gypsies), Greeks, and Macedonian Slavs. Around 67 percent of these people live in urban areas. The official language is Bulgarian and is spoken by about 90 percent of the population while Turkish is also widely spoken by the minority groups.

Arts, Culture and Music of Bulgaria

Flag of Bulgaria

horizontal bands - white at the top, green in the middle and red at the bottom.
Please click here to view the Flag of Bulgaria

Initially, Bulgaria had concentrated only on the agricultural sector but after World War II, the government nationalized all industrial enterprises and brought them under a series of five-year economic plans, with heavy industry being the top priority. In 1990 Bulgaria started converting from a socialist to a market economy, which was expected to result in a positive economic reversal. However, it did not happen and efforts towards some reforms and privatization began. In 1993-94, many state-owned enterprises were privatized. However, the reforms got stalled again as former Communists came into power, who continued to hold onto the state-owned enterprises instead of privatizing them. The economy continued to deteriorate and in late 1996, the country entered a deep economic crisis. In 1997, a newly elected pro-reform government undertook measures to stabilize the economy and fight the deep-seated corruption prevalent in many of the country's large enterprises.