Place and role of the agricultural sector in the national and regional economic structure

The agricultural sector is an important branch that leads to significant changes in the national and regional economic structure, as well as in trend formation impacting the economic development of the country. The changes related to the sectoral structure of the branch determine the place the country occupies with respect to its economic development. The present study aims to analyze and compare the relative share of some main economic indicators defining the place and the role of the agricultural sector in the economy of the EU and Bulgaria, the relationship of agriculture to the other sectors, and to evaluate the dynamic changes in the sectoral structure over a longer time period. The study shows that Bulgaria still lags behind the other EU member states from the perspective of restructuring economy and allocating resources from the agricultural sector to the other two sectors.