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)
_#_Inflation rate (consumer prices): 100% (1990 est.)
_#_Unemployment rate: 2% (1990 est.)
_#_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)
_#_Inland waterways: 470 km (1987)
_#_Pipelines: crude, 193 km; refined product, 418 km; natural gas, 1,400 km (1986)
_#_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