Facts : 1 Beginning of the 20th century and until 1990 The first modern factory in Bulgaria was set up in Sliven in 1836; since then and especially after the 1860s, the economy of Bulgaria as a whole was in a state of upswing, this being particularly felt in the early 20th century and especially in the 1920s
Facts : 2 During the 1930s, the Bulgarian economy was described as an economy militarily bound to Germany
Facts : 3 In the early 1940s, as Germany began to lose the Second World War, the Bulgarian economy suffered a decline
Facts : 4 As a whole, the period between the 1880s and 1945 was marked by strong industrialization (during the 17th and 18th century Bulgaria had a largely undeveloped industry with agriculture, crafts, and partly trade being the only developed industry sectors)
Facts : 5 During the Socialism era, Bulgarian economy continued to be industrialized, although free market trade substantially decreased, as private market initiatives became state-regulated
Facts : 6 Still, the Bulgarian economy made significant overall progress in modernizing road infrastructure, airline transportation, as well as developing the tourism sector by building tourist resorts along the Black sea coast and the mountain regions
Facts : 7 From the end of World War II until the widespread change of regime in Eastern Europe in November 1989, the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) exerted complete economic, social and political control in Bulgaria
Facts : 8 The party s ascent to power in 1944 had marked the beginning of economic change towards planned economy
Facts : 9 During that time, Bulgaria followed the Soviet model of economic development more closely than any other member of the Eastern Bloc, while becoming one of the first members of Comecon
Facts : 10 The new regime shifted the economy type from a predominantly agrarian one towards an industrial economy, while encouraging the relocation of the labour force from the countryside to the cities, thus providing workers for the newly built large-scale industrial complexes
Facts : 11 At the same time, the focus of Bulgarian international trade shifted from Central Europe to Eastern Europe and the USSR
Facts : 12 These new policies resulted in impressive initial rates of economic development
Facts : 13 Soviet-style centralised planning formed by consecutive five-year plan periods had more immediate benefits there compared to the other Eastern European states where it was first applied in the early 1950s
Facts : 14 Throughout