The investments in Bulgaria’s construction sector declined by the staggering 67,4% in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008.

This data has been announced Friday by the Bulgarian Construction Chamber. The total income of the Bulgarian construction firms in the first half of 2009 declined by 15,3% compared to January-June, 2008.

The decline is rather steep in the construction of buildings, while the construction of infrastructure and engineering projects has retained its pre-crisis levels.

Bulgaria’s Regional Development Minister, Rosen Plevneliev, said that of the total of 231 300 workers employed in the constitution sector in 2008, some 35 800 are expected to lose their jobs by the end of 2009.

The large construction firms are expected to lay off about 10% of their workers, the medium-sized – about 18%, and the small ones – about 30%.

Plevneliev also said that 1 550 construction firms might be shut down altogether by not extending their registration with the Central Constitution Register at the end of 2009. A total of 5 860 firms are included in the register, and about 12 000 firms in Bulgaria include “construction” in their matter of activities.

The Minister has vowed to speed up the public works and infrastructure projects to be funded with EU money in order to create employment for the construction sector in times of a raging economic crisis.

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