The Recent Trend towards Regionalization and Geographic Proximity Displayed in Bulgarian International Trade (2021-2025)
Keywords:
deglobalization, geopolitical pressure, protectionism, supply chain shortening, gains from tradeAbstract
This study is analysing Bulgarian foreign trade in the period 2021-2025 trying to establish if the trend for increased regionalization and geographic concentration shows up. Many prominent economists prove in their works that globalization has reached its peak and trends for regionalization and supply chain shortening gain power. The contribution of this paper is that it focuses on this process especially for Bulgarian international trade. The growth of international trade between Bulgaria and countries with common border on the one hand and a group of Asian countries on the other is calculated for the studied period on the basis of secondary data and compared. The data are obtained from verified national and international references. Statistical, and mathematical methods are employed in the data processing. The comparison reveals that the average growth rate of trade between Bulgaria and neighbouring countries – 10.4 % for the studied period is higher than the one with the group of Asian countries 6.8 %. These results confirm that the trend for increased geographic regionalization is valid for Bulgaria. The support of the trend by policy makers and the business would be beneficial for the countries in the region.
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