Bulgaria has overcome the consequences of the economic crisis but this due to the faster development of only 9 regions, while the rest have remained “submerged”.

Regional disparities are increasing and becoming deeper, while the utilisation of European funds does not achieve its main purpose – greater cohesion of regions within the country and a decrease in the gap between Bulgaria and the wealth of Europe.

Disparities are especially visible in terms of the labour market and the educational system.

These are some of the conclusions of the fifth annual research “Regional Profiles: Indices for Development 2016”, carried out by the Institute for Market Economy and presented on Tuesday.

2014 is the year when Bulgaria overcame the consequences of the economic crisis and GDP exceeded pre-crisis levels.

This is due to the development of the economy of 9 regions: Sofia-city, Sofia region, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Yambol, Veliko Tarnovo, Razgrad, Dobrich and Varna. In the remaining 19 regions, real GDP is still lower than its level in 2008.