Bulgaria’s industrial production dropped by 6.8% year-on-year in July 2026, after a 2.5% decline in June, marking a sharper contraction in overall activity. Manufacturing output fell by 7.3% (compared with a 1.4% decrease in June), with the downturn led by significant declines in:
- Fabricated metal products, excluding machinery and equipment (-29.5%)
- Leather and related products (-25.9%)
- Other transport equipment (-23.3%)
- Textiles (-14.3%)
- Chemicals and chemical products (-11.2%)
- Other non-metallic mineral products (-9.8%)
- Motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (-9.7%)
Mining and quarrying activity also remained weak, shrinking by 36.1%, though this was a smaller decline than the 49.0% fall recorded in June. By contrast, output in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply continued to grow strongly, accelerating to 16.7% from 8.7% in the previous month.
By main industrial grouping, production declined in:
- Investment goods (-9.1% vs a 7.2% increase in June)
- Consumer durables (-7.4% vs a marginal 0.1% rise)
The contraction in intermediate goods deepened to 11.3% from 9.9%. In contrast, production of energy goods strengthened, rising by 10.0% compared with 5.5% in June.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, industrial production fell by 3.0% in July, following a 0.1% decline in June.
