Crisis atlas / BGR

Bulgaria

7 distinct crisis events in 3 episodes, 1990–2021, from the union of five primary chronologies.

Debt profile: government debt trajectory and crisis-start levels →

Banking crises

Currency crises

Sovereign debt crises

Crisis events

1990–2021

Span

Crisis timeline

Every distinct (year, type) event, most recent first, with the chronologies flagging it. Start-year sources (GMD, JST) do not mark continuation years, so long episodes show lower agreement after their first year.

2021
Bankingesrb1 source
2020
Bankingesrb1 source
1997
Bankingesrb, laeven_valencia2 sources
1996
Currencygmd, laeven_valencia2 sources
Bankingesrb, gmd, laeven_valencia3 sources
1994
Sovereign debtgmd, laeven_valencia2 sources
1990
Sovereign debtgmd, laeven_valencia2 sources

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2020) | Reinhart-Rogoff via HBS BFFS | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database Methodology

Macro context around each episode

Inflation, central-bank policy rate, and government debt in a window of five years either side of each crisis episode (consecutive crisis years bridged across gaps of up to two years). Crisis years shaded.

1990

Sovereign debt

Inflation (% y/y)

Policy rate (%)

Govt debt (% of GDP)

1994–1997

Sovereign debtBankingCurrencyFiscal cost 14.0% of GDP, output loss 59.5% of GDP (Laeven-Valencia 2026)

Inflation (% y/y)

Policy rate (%)

Govt debt (% of GDP)

2020–2021

Banking

Inflation (% y/y)

Policy rate (%)

Govt debt (% of GDP)

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 (Müller, Xu, Lehbib & Chen 2025) Inflation is % year over year; policy rate is the central-bank rate in %; government debt is % of GDP. Methodology