Bulgaria moves ahead with reforms.

In 2004, Bulgaria's unemployment rate was estimated at 12.7 percent by the CIA's World Factbook. So it is of some note that in on June 23, 2005, the Sofia News Agency (Sofia) reported that the country had at least made some progress in this dismal statistic, which has such a negative effect on a country's overall consumer confidence and consumer spending patterns. The agency reported that unemployment dropped to 11.5 percent, the lowest level over the past five years.

In 1996, Bulgaria experienced an economic crisis the result of which was a change in government from socialist to a more market economy focused regime. The country's economy contracted again the following year, but since that time has posted an average annual increase in GDP of 4.4 percent. The reform government also has a good record on inflation. In 1997, the rate of inflation increased an astonishing 1,061 percent over the previous year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). By the following year, the reform government had inflation down to an increase in the rate of 18.8 percent, and since that time, the increase in the rate of inflation has held at an average annual level of 5.5 percent. The IMF predicted last September that the increase in the rate of inflation for 2005 would be 3.6 percent by the time official numbers were posted.