Bulgaria Business Confidence Improves to 5-Month High

Bulgaria’s industry business confidence indicator rose to 18.8 in September 2025 from 18.3 in August, marking the highest reading since April. The increase was driven by stronger assessments of the current business situation (23.7 vs 20.2 in August) and improved expectations for production activity over the next three months (10.6 vs 9.3). Entrepreneurs also reported slightly less pessimism regarding new orders (-15.0 vs -15.8). Conversely, expectations for the business situation over the next six months eased (14.1 vs 16.4), while employment expectations softened (4.3 vs 6.1). Despite the overall improvement, the sector continues to face constraints from an uncertain economic environment (40.9% vs 44.5%) and labor shortages (36.6% vs 34.7%). Managers generally expect selling prices to remain stable over the next quarter, with the balance indicator rising to 6.9 from 6.1 in August.