g partners. These
clearing units are traded sporadically abroad at varying rates of
discount.

The lev has been traded on the black market in exchange for so-called
capitalist banknotes or gold coins. The black market rate of the lev
fluctuated between 4.60 leva per US$1 in January 1963 and 2.58 leva per
US$1 in June 1972.

Except for small remittances or travel allocations to other communist
countries, the lev is nontransferable for residents; resident status
applies to all physical and juridical persons who have resided in the
country for more than six months, regardless of their citizenship.
Ownership of or trade in gold, foreign currencies, or so-called
capitalist securities is prohibited, as is the import and export of
Bulgarian banknotes. There are no investments by noncommunist country
nationals in Bulgaria.

Exchange transactions are administered by the Bulgarian National Bank
jointly with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and
the Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank. Bulgaria is neither a member of the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development nor of the
International Monetary Fund. Statistics on currency in circulation, the
public debt, foreign exchange reserves, gold stocks, and the balance of
payments have not been published.

FOREIGN TRADE

Foreign trade is a state monopoly. Trade policy is formulated by the BKP
and government leadership; it is translated into a complex set of laws
and regulations designed to encourage the expansion and qualitative
improvement of production for export, to promote import substitution,
and to bring about greater efficiency in production and foreign trade
operations. Control over foreign trade is shared by the Ministry of
Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and the Bulgarian National Bank
through the Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank.

Along with other elements of the economic structure, the foreign trade
apparatus and the laws and regulations governing foreign trade have been
frequently modified. As a result, there are two basic types of foreign
trade organization: those attached to and serving individual economic
trusts with a large export volume and organizations serving several
trusts whose export activity did not justify a separate export
department. Two foreign trade organizations that imported most
industrial materials were attached to economic trusts responsible for
the domestic distribution of supplies. Foreign trade organizations
a