Bulgaria will seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial package after the July 5 elections, the chief economist at Austrian investment bank Raiffeisen Centrobank, Peter Brezinschek, has told Bloomberg news agency. He estimated that the country would need between one half and two-thirds of about $25 billion, the amounts secured from the IMF and the European Union by Hungary and Romania.

The deal depended on the results of Parliament elections, in which Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov's party GERB is expected to win the most votes, Brezinschek said. Borissov has already said he would seek some sort of precautionary agreement.

"There are informal discussions with the IMF - this is not official yet, they haven’t reached a conclusion," Brezinschek was quoted as saying in an interview during a trip to New York. "After the elections, a new government will be in power and we’ll have an official announcement that Bulgaria will get assistance from the IMF in conjunction with the European Union."

With its foreign reserves shrinking and gross foreign debt at 107 per cent of gross domestic product, Bulgaria wil seek a deal that would cover "the majority of the short-term refinancing needs [...] by the financial aid from the IMF," Brezinschek was quoted as saying.

"The development for Bulgaria principally depends on the new government, how the new government will create an environment for foreign direct investors to invest."

"If they can manage that, and maintain the currency board until this change in the industrial structure takes place, I would feel confident," he said. "Otherwise they have to give it up because it’s too confident."