The economy of Bulgaria is an open market economy with a developed private sector and a limited number of state enterprises. Bulgaria has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 1 December 1996. Since 1 January 2007, Bulgaria has also been a member of the EU. The Bulgarian economy is characterized by economic, political and financial stability.

The country has a strategic geographic location, liberal access to markets consisting of more than 560 million consumers, and the lowest corporate tax in EU - 10%. Investments in municipalities with high levels of unemployment enjoy tax-free status.

There are also provisions for a 5% tax upon dividends and a 10% “flat rate” tax on the incomes of physical persons.

According to the classification of IMF the European countries are divided in two categories when it comes to economic development: developed and developing countries. Bulgaria is considered to be of the latter type.

The country is situated on Southeast Europe and more precisely at the Balkan peninsula.  About 50% of Bulgaria’s area is arable. The most important crops that are being grown in the country are sugar beets, cereal, sunflower, vegetables, tobacco, grapes and rose oil. Bulgaria had deposits of iron, copper, lead, zinc, coal, gypsum, kaolin, rock salt and clay.

Close to 10 million tourist visit the country annually. Moreover Bulgaria is an important transit territory for international trade between Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The country has developed economic relations with the neighboring and the other European countries. Since Bulgaria has been a member of the EU, the Union has been Bulgaria’s main trade partner. Around 70% of the export of the country towards the EU is concentrated in Germany, Italy, Romania, Greece, France, and Belgium (according to data from August 2015). When it comes to import, the biggest partners of the country in the EU are Germany, Italy, Greece, and Spain.  The most important trade partners outside of the EU are Turkey, Singapore, China, Russia, Serbia, and Macedonia (53 % of the export towards countries outside of the EU during 2014). The most important exporters for Bulgaria outside of the EU are Russia, Turkey, China, Ukraine and Serbia.

The most significant goods for export from the country are machines, equipment, transportation means, weapons, minerals, fertilizers, building materials, crops, livestock, tobacco, wood, fabrics, footwear, products of the chemical industry - plastics and rubber, fuels and others.

The main goods that Bulgaria is importing are equipment, fuels, cars, chemicals, petroleum production equipment, weapons, food and beverages, cigarettes, pharmaceuticals and capital goods.

There is a trade deficit in Bulgaria, meaning that the export (23 billion euro in 2015) is less than the import (26 billiard euro in 2015), which adversely affects the Bulgarian producers.

Besides the membership in the EU, Bulgaria is part of the International Trade Organization, the Agreement for free trade in Central Europe, the European Association for free trade, IMF, UN, UNESCO, NATO and other.

GDP per capita amounts to 6600 euro in 2016 (GDP is 47.3 billion euro). The external debt of the country during the same year is  close to 35 billion euro (73,1% of GDP for the same period). The inflation at the end of the year was 0.1% in comparison with December 2015. The unemployment is 8%.

Bulgarian National Bank /BNB/ supervises the bank sector in Bulgaria. Most of the banks in the country are subsidiaries or branches of foreign banks. The Bulgarian lev is pegged to the euro (1 euro = 1.95583 lv.). The country is not part of the Eurozone.

Bulgaria has a population of 7,364,570 as of 2011, with 72.9% of its people living in either cities or villages.