The World Bank presented on Monday its latest convergence report on Bulgaria, suggesting the new EU member state needed to drastically up its labour productivity in order to catch up with the rest of the bloc. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency)
Bulgaria needs to maintain a labour productivity growth rate of 5% if it is to catch up with the rest of the European Union in terms of monthly incomes, a World Bank report claims.
Bulgarian labour productivity is growing by 2% annually, the same as the rest of the EU, but it needs to reach 5% by 2015 and stay around that figure until 2040, according to the report, presented in Sofia on Monday.
Average incomes in Bulgaria are currently only one third the level of the EU-25 group of countries, which does not include the most recent two additions to the bloc, Bulgaria and Romania, which joined in January.
If the labour productivity growth remains unchanged, Bulgaria will only reach half of the incomes in EU-25 by 2040, the World Bank claimed.
To speed up the growth rate, Bulgaria needs to improve its education system, invest more in research and development, focus on those sectors where it has a competitive edge and keep its labour market flexible.
Although Bulgaria's government allocates for each student a share of the gross domestic product that is even higher than other EU countries, the continued low quality of education is proof that resource management needs to improve, the report said.