Pleven Economic Centre

PLEVEN ECONOMIC CENTER

• INTRODUCTION | Key indicators for the Pleven economic center

• COMPOSITION AND LABOR MIGRATION

The Pleven economic center includes seven munici­palities grouped around one core – Pleven munici­pality. Compared to the previous edition of the study (2017), two new, geographically more remote munic­ipalities have been added to the center – Iskar and Nikopol. The number of daily labor migrants from the periphery to the core is 4,000, with the largest num­ber commuting from Dolna Mitropolia – 1,700. Work in the municipality of Pleven has the most significant impact on the labor markets in Dolna Mitropolia and Dolni Dabnik, where it accounts for 37% and 33% of total employment respectively. Among the surround­ing municipalities, the one closest to being included in the centre is Levski, where 7.3% of employees commute to their jobs in Pleven every day.

• ECONOMY AND INVESTMENT

In 2021, the output of the Pleven centre reached 2.61 billion BGN, or 15,600 BGN on average per capita. This figure is the lowest among all centers: a possible reflection of Pleven’s demographic struc­ture. Value added growth over the last 10 years is 62% – one of the lower values among the 16 centers. The impact of the core is relatively lower compared to other centers, with Pleven municipality accounting for 80% of total value added, Dolna Mitropolia gener­ating another 8.2%, and Dolni Dabnik another 4.6%. Growth rates also differ, with Pleven municipality reporting 75% growth in value added over 10 years, Dolna Mitropolia 47%, while Pordim has seen a de­cline of 56%, and the decline in Dolni Dabnik is 3%.

The structure of the economy in the Pleven center is characterized by a very high share of healthcare, which accounts for 15% of the value added, which is concentrated almost entirely in the core. This reflects the leading role of Pleven municipality in healthcare at the national level, as well as the impor­tance of the Medical University. The share of agricul­ture is also high at 12%, and in the smaller periph­eral municipalities of Iskar and Nikopol it accounts for more than half of the local economy. The largest sector with 28% of the value added Is manufactur­ing, mostly concentrated in Pleven and Dolni Dab­nik, followed by trade with 21%. Given the profile of the economy, it is not surprising that it has limited orientation towards foreign markets, with export earnings in 2021 of 798 million BGN, or 4,400 BGN per capita, the lowest in the country after Kozloduy. The largest employers are the University Hospital in Pleven with over 1,700 employees, the cables manu­facturer Leoni with almost 1,400, while the leader in terms of revenue is the chemical products trader EuroChem Agro.

As of the end of 2021, total FDI in the center was worth 156 million EUR, or 937 EUR per capita, concentrat­ed almost exclusively in the municipality of Pleven, where foreign capital attracted totaled 151 million EUR. The sector attracting the highest level of for­eign investment is industry (63 million EUR), followed by real estate (59 million EUR) and trade, transport and tourism (29 million EUR). Businesses in the trade sector account for the largest share of total invest­ment in 2021, with 112 million BGN out of the total 382 million BGN of FTA acquisition expenditure in the centre as a whole. Both agriculture and industry also attract significant investment.

• LABOR MARKET

According to the 2021 census, the total number of employed people in the Pleven center is 59,900 and the employment rate of the population aged 15–64 is 60.1%. Most employees – 46,000 people – are concentrated in the municipality of Pleven, while the second largest labor market is that of Dolna Mitropolia with 4,400 people. The lowest employ­ment rate is in Iskar – only 42%, in most peripheral municipalities it stands in the 48–50% range, and in the core it is 66%.

Over the last 5 years, the labor market, as measured by the number of people employed in the center, has shrunk by 4.7%. Most employees – 37% of the total – are engaged in manufacturing and 21% are in trade. The third largest sector is healthcare, which accounts for 12% of the jobs, with another 5.5% each in ag­riculture and construction. In most municipalities in the centre, healthcare offers the best pay, with the highest one in Pleven – 2,211 BGN on average per month. Despite the 53% growth registered over the last 5 years, the average salary in the centre remains low: in 2021 it was only 1,182 BGN per month.

In 2022, unemployment in the centre remained rela­tively high – at an average of 8.5% according to the Employment Agency, but significantly higher in the peripheral municipalities, reaching 20% in Dolna Mitropolia and 23% in Nikopol. The permanently unemployed are 9% of the working-age population in Nikopol, about 5% in Pordim and Gulyantsi, and even in the core they are 1.4%, which is a very high share for a district capital.

• HUMAN RESOURCES AND WORKFORCE

Among the strengths of the Pleven center is its rela­tively good educational structure. The proportion of the population aged 7 years and above with a uni­versity degree was 23% in 2021, rising to 29% in the core. The role of healthcare in the local economy plays an important role in this, as does the Medical University. At the same time, the share of the popu­lation with primary and lower education is also high, averaging 25% overall in the centre, but as high as 46% in Nikopol and 35–37% in the other peripheral municipalities. In some places the illiteracy rate ap­proaches and exceeds 2%.

According to the 2021 census, the population is 167,000, which is a decline of 15.6% since the previ­ous census in 2011 – a significant contraction com­pared to regions with better demographic trends, though less so compared to many other centers. Pleven, however, has one of the lowest proportions of working-age population (59%), with only Sliven– Yambol and Sevlievo–Gabrovo doing worse on this indicator. At the same time, the share of the popula­tion aged 65 and over is among the highest – 28%; on this indicator Sevlievo–Gabrovo is the only center performing worse.

Natural population growth is negative and reached –13.5‰ in 2022 for the centre as a whole, but with much less favorable values of –29‰ in Gulyantsi and –24‰ in Nikopol, while in the core it was –10‰. Migration processes offer no reason for optimism either: the net migration rate is 0.2%; the Pleven city municipality is the only one that attracts population, while its periphery is losing people.