Each student will find a current course-relatedissue while watching television, listening to the radio, or reading thenewspaper, a magazine or the Internet. You will write a short...

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN BULGARIA
Bulgaria is an upper middle income country as per World Bank data. It also enjoys healthy rank of 55 in HDI rankings, with an index value of 0.771, which is above the index value for the region –Europe and Central Asia and the world average index. It is services based economy where this sector contributes around 65% to GDP, followed by industry and agriculture contributing miniscule 6% only.
It is categorised as a transition economy, and has seen rapid and strong credit growth. It started with a low base growth rate and used financial deepening to accelerate its growth rate. The degree of financial intermediation as measured by credit to GDP ratio has been steadily rising. The economy saw some severe bank crisis till 1990s which contributed to a decline of 10% in GDp in 1996. Thereafter a currency board was constituted along with a complete rationalization of the banking sector. ‘The surprising aspect of banking …is not the depth of the crises after the end of communism but the speed with which financial restructuring took place subsequently.’...