Bulgarian trade deficit for the first six months of 2007 reached 3.29 billion euro which is 12.3 per cent of the planned annual GDP, according to data of Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

Negative trade balance increased with 1.05 billion euro compared to the first six months of 2006 when it was 2.23 billion euro or 8.9 per cent of the GDP, investor.bg reported.

For June 2007 trade deficit was 540.1 million euro which is 190.1 million euro more that in June 2006.

Export for the first half of 2007 was 6.16 billion euro, an increase of 7.5 per cent on annual basis. Import for the same period was 9.44 billion euro, a growth of 18.6 per cent for a year.

Import of non-energy goods increased by 25.9 per cent to 8.06 billion euro, import of energy resources decreased by 3.8 per cent to 1.85 billion euro.

In the first half of 2007, 63 per cent of the country's export was to European Union (EU) countries compared to 61.3 per cent  for the same period of 2006. BNB said that the increase resulted from increased export to Germany, Romania, Italy and Greece.

The largest share in the country's export to non-European countries have Turkey, Serbia and Croatia.

Import from EU was 5.26 billion euro which is 53.1 per cent of total import compared to 51.2 per cent a year earlier. The growth was attributed to increased import of goods from Italy, Greece, Austria, Holland and Hungary.