The construction sector in Bulgaria had declined by 20 per cent on an annual basis, the National Statistic Institute (NSI) reported on November 10 2009.

As one of the sectors of Bulgarian economy most severely affected by the global economic downturn, construction in the country shrank by as much as 19.7 per cent in September 2009 alone, compared to levels in 2008, the report said. Of the aforementioned, urban construction has suffered more severely, indicating a 24.4 per cent decline, whereas infrastructural construction went down by 9.3 per cent.

Simultaneously, the total construction output in September was 1.7 per cent below that of August, indicating a continuous decline in production, but with improving statistics. In comparison, August accounted for an 11.9 per cent decline in output as opposed to July 2009.

Overall, for the period January-September 2009, total construction output had incurred a drop of 11.5 per cent, with urban construction, which accounts for as much as 65 per cent of the total construction sector, suffering the heaviest decline. In the nine months since the turn of the year, urban construction slumped by 16.1 per cent, whereas infrastructural construction by 0.7 per cent, the report said.

On October 26 2009, Bulgaria's Regional Development Minister Rossen Plevneliev said that about 30 000 to 35 000 people employed in the construction sector were facing redundancies in 2010.

There are 12 000 firms nationwide registered in the sector, of which 5500 were members of the Bulgarian Chamber of Construction (BCC). According to Plevneliev, BCC expected that as many as 1500 of its members would go bankrupt.

Source: Property Wise