BULGARIA JOBLESS RATE TO SHOOT UP TO 20% BY END-2010
Bulgaria's unemployment rate is expected to mark a sharp increase by the end of 2010, reaching 19-20%, up by about 10% year-upon-year, experts say.
“The North-Eastern and North-Western regions of Bulgaria will see the most shocking rise in unemployment, going up as high as 60%,” the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) Chairman, Bozhidar Danev, said on Monday.
He added that this may seriously hamper the country's exit from the crisis, as it will fuel non-performing loans, shrink consumption and revenues to the state budget and the security system.
Trade unions and employers' organizations forecast as early as at the end of 2008 that the average unemployment rate in Bulgaria in 2009 will be two-digit.
Official data shows that the jobless rate at the end of December 2009 stood at 9,13%, while 338,000 have sought employment at the labor bureaux. The figures however do not account for the people who lost their jobs, but did not register as unemployed.
The Bulgarian Industrial Association advised the government to speed up the implementation of infrastructure projects in a bid to combat unemployment.
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