Bulgaria can perform successful economic policies without the direct participation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) chairperson Ivan Iskrov said.

If Bulgaria takes advantage of its experience and manages to clarify its priorities it will perform well without IMF supervision, Iskrov said.

Iskrov took part in a seminar on new challenges in view of Bulgaria's EU integration.

Population aging features among the main problems which the country will have to deal with in the upcoming two or three decades, head of the IMF mission to Bulgaria Robert Hageman said.

Hageman said that it was disturbing that despite the favourable economic climate Bulgaria continued to suffer high inflation.

The current account deficit of 16 per cent was also a setback, Hageman said. The current account deficit means lower competitiveness especially in the conditions of a currency board.