OECD Economic Survey: Bulgaria 2026

Report overview

According to the Survey, Bulgaria’s income levels continue to converge with those of advanced OECD economies, supported by solid consumption and rising wages. However, productivity remains significantly below OECD averages, and public as well as private investment levels lag behind those of peer countries. Fiscal pressures are increasing — driven in part by defense spending, the green transition and demographic ageing — and the report recommends structural reforms and investment in innovation to sustain long-term growth.

A special focus of the Survey is productivity, but the report also highlights key structural areas including education, labour market effectiveness and climate policy.

Agriculture, rural development and the natural environment

Although the 2026 Survey does not contain a dedicated chapter on agriculture, several themes within the report are highly relevant to agriculture, rural areas and environmental sustainability:

1. Greenhouse gas emissions and the green transition

The report notes that greenhouse gas emissions in Bulgaria have declined, but they remain high relative to many OECD peers. It recommends clearer policy plans for energy and emissions — such as a coal phase-out roadmap, tax reforms targeted at vehicles, and accelerated grid investments — to reduce emissions while ensuring energy security. These issues are of direct relevance to rural economies and agriculture, since farm sectors contribute to national emissions inventories and are affected by energy and climate policy frameworks.

For Bulgarian agriculture, this implies that national strategies — including energy pricing, support for renewable generation on farms, and incentives for climate-smart production — will become increasingly important as the country aligns with EU climate goals.

2. Productivity, innovation and rural economies

The Survey’s emphasis on productivity gains through innovation and business environment reform has implications for agriculture, particularly in rural areas where productivity has historically lagged. Investment barriers and weak innovation uptake in Bulgarian farming — especially among small and medium-sized farms — constrain competitiveness and adaptation to climate and market pressures. Policies to strengthen access to technology, knowledge and markets are therefore essential to help farming contribute to national growth.

3. Environment and natural capital integration

While the survey focuses mainly on broad economic indicators, its recommendations on integrating environmental considerations into economic policy underline a larger trend in OECD thinking: sustainability must cut across sectors. For agriculture, this means aligning farm and rural development policies with environmental goals such as protecting biodiversity, improving water quality and enhancing soil health. Effective integration can help Bulgarian agriculture meet EU Green Deal and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) targets, including eco-schemes and climate-friendly direct support measures. (OECD)

4. Rural challenges and demographic trends

The Survey underscores Bulgaria’s demographic challenges — an ageing population and rural-urban disparities in income and opportunity. These trends mirror long-standing structural features of Bulgarian agriculture: fragmented land ownership, low labour productivity, and limited prospects for rural employment outside farming. Tackling these structural issues can help revitalise rural areas and strengthen agricultural resilience to economic and environmental shocks.

Implications for Bulgarian agriculture and environment policy

Although agriculture accounts for a relatively modest share of Bulgaria’s GDP, the sector occupies a large share of land and remains critical for rural livelihoods and landscape stewardship. Aligning agricultural policy with the Survey’s broader recommendations means:

• Investing in productivity and innovation — to move Bulgarian agriculture up the value chain and reduce reliance on low-productivity practices.Support for climate-smart practices — including renewable energy adoption, nutrient management, methane reduction and biodiversity-friendly land use.
• Better integration of environmental goals — ensuring that rural development strategies contribute to national targets on emissions, ecosystems and water resources.

The OECD Survey thus provides a roadmap not just for macroeconomic stability, but for a more sustainable, competitive and nature-positive agricultural sector that contributes to Bulgaria’s long-term economic resilience within the EU and OECD context.

Focus of LAN in Bulgaria

The LAN team in Bulgaria is committed to facilitate technology, knowledge and know-how transfer with the main goal being turning the Netherlands into a key long-term partner in achieving sustainable and resilient growth in Bulgarian agri-food sector by helping tackle challenges related to competitiveness, food security and affordability, climate adaptation, energy transition and smart resource management, which also fall within the main observations and priorities highlighted by OECD. We follow a systematic approach of identifying promising fields for cooperation, raising awareness on SWOT and showcasing them to Dutch stakeholders, and facilitating platforms and streams for intensifying B2B, K2K, K2B, G2G bilateral connections.