Bulgaria's current account deficit at the end of June 2007 reached 2.84 billion euro, according to preliminary data of Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) .

This was 10.6 per cent of the predicted annual GDP, BNB said, as quoted by investor.bg.

The current account deficit for the first six months of 2006 was 1.84 billion euro, or 7.3 per cent of the GDP, which was an increase of 54.1 per cent on an annual basis.

For June 2007, alone the current account deficit amounted to 247.9 million euro compared with 87.3 million euro a year earlier.

The foreign trade balance at the end of June 2007 was negative, 3.2 billion euro compared with 2.2 billion euro for the same period of 2006.

Foreign direct investment went up by 4.8 per cent on an annual base to 2.11 billion euro. At the end of the first half of 2007, it covered 74.5 per cent of the current account deficit, while a year earlier it covered 109.6 per cent of the current account deficit.

The UK formed the largest share of the country's direct foreign investment, 15.9 per cent of the total volume of direct foreign investment in Bulgaria in the first half of 2007. The UK was followed by Austria, with 13.2 per cent of the total direct foreign investment, and Luxembourg, with 11.8 per cent.