Bulgaria is fifth in the EU by GDP growth in the second quarter, after increase of 3.4% on annual basis, according to the initial data of the European Statistical Office Eurostat. For comparison, the GDP grew by 3.6% in the first quarter.

On quarter-on-quarter basis, the economic growth stood at 0.8% versus 0.9% in the first quarter. This is the slowest expansion since the second quarter of 2015.

Among the EU Member States, the highest GDP growth was achieved by Poland (+5%), followed by Hungary (4.4%), Latvia and Romania (4.2%). Bulgaria and Slovakia (+3.9%) and Lithuania (3.7%) ranked also in the head.

Compared to the previous quarter, Bulgarian GDP grew by 0.8%, which ranks fourth among EU member states after Romania (1.4%), Slovakia and Sweden (1%), Lithuania, Hungary and Poland (+0.9%). An increase of 0.8% over the previous quarter was also achieved by Cyprus and Latvia.

The gross domestic product of the Eurozone and the EU grew by 0.4% in the second quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter. In the first quarter, Eurozone and EU GDP also grew 0.4%.

Compared to the second quarter of last year, Eurozone and EU GDP grew by 2.2% after annual growth of 2.5% and 2.4% respectively in the previous quarter.

For comparison, in the second quarter of 2018, the US GDP grew by 1% compared to the first three months of the year and by 2.8% compared to the same period of the previous year.