Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expressed hope on Tuesday that the growth of the Bulgarian economy in the new year will exceed the forecasted 2 % and will reach 4.5 %.

Borisov made this comment at a ceremony on handing the first contracts under the “Improving the production capacity of Small and medium-sized enterprises” procedure funded by the Innovations and Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014-2020.

The Bulgarian prime minister called on firms with approved projects to participate in achieving a higher than forecasted economic growth.

He noted that more than BGN 116 M were entering the SMEs and expressed hope that these will be spent wisely on innovations, job creation, raising competitiveness, increasing exports and contributing to economic growth.

In his words, more than BGN 1 B were available for allocation under the programme.

Borisov thanked the European Commission for reimbursing all the invoices on European programmes submitted until the end of last year.

According to him, this was a good assessment for the work of the state administration, ministries and municipalities.

He reminded that years ago the most optimistic forecasts predicted an absorption rate of 80-82 % in the 2007-2013 programme period.

At present, the absorption rate stood at 95-96 %.

Borisov added that the State Fund Agriculture had an absorption rate of 99 % , with BGN 3.5 B having been allocated to Bulgarian producers.

The Bulgarian prime minister reminded that nearly a year ago most of the EU funds were frozen.