Bulgaria feels strongly the global economic crisis, show the results of a snap poll conducted by the German-Bulgarian Industrial and Commercial Chamber.

A total of 76 companies members of the Chamber took part in the survey. A third of them work in the service sector, 18 per cent are engaged in wholesale trade, 20 per cent are production companies, and 12 per cent are in the construction business. Sixty-seven per cent of the respondents in the poll describe the impacts of the global crisis in Bulgaria as negative while 23 per cent say the effects are strongly negative.

Sixty-three per cent of the respondents say they expect sales of their companies to drop while 29 per cent expect the business to be as usual. Nearly 8 per cent even say the crisis has a positive side for the activity of their company, mostly in relocating the business of companies from more expensive places in the world to Bulgaria. Twenty-seven per cent of the respondents expect 2008 turnover to be higher than in 2007, nearly one third are bracing for stagnation, while 39 per cent fear a sharp drop in their turnover.

The poll also showed that more than 80 per cent of the companies will respond to the crisis by cost-cutting while 14 per cent say they are forced to lay off people. More than half of the respondents will limit the amount of planned investments while one in eight companies has totally given up on its investment plans.

The crisis will be felt in the relations with Bulgaria's biggest foreign trade partner, Germany, sources from the German-Bulgarian Industrial and Commercial Chamber said. Sixty-three per cent of the participants in the survey fear that exports to Germany will drop while nearly half of the respondents say imports will decrease. Seven out of ten companies think that the inflow of German investments will drop.

The survey also showed that lending conditions worsened tangibly in the past few weeks. Three quarters of the participants in the survey say it is difficult to get loans and such are available, they are with high interest. The business expects from the government two measures: to cut taxes and to provide state guarantees to banks, the survey showed.