SOFIA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.6 percent year on year in 2017 in real terms, 0.2 percentage higher that the previous year, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the country's National Statistical Institute (NSI).

The nominal value of the GDP for 2017 was 98.631 billion BGN or 56.855 billion U.S. dollars using the average annual exchange rate of 1.73478 BGN for 1 dollar, the NSI said. GDP per capita was 8,004 dollars, it said.

Meanwhile, Gross Value Added (GVA) at current prices amounted to 85.413 billion BGN, and in real terms it increased by 3.7 percent in comparison with the 2016, the NSI said.

According to the statistics, the industry's relative share in the GVA of the national economy was 28.3 percent, while the service sector created 67.4 percent of the total GVA and the agriculture created 4.3 percent.

Bulgaria's GDP grew by 3.4 percent year on year in 2016, 3.6 percent in 2015, and 1.3 percent in 2014.