What is the right-wing policy in culture? Are these ideas represented in politics and what do most parties actually say, commenting on this sector? Everyone is united that “culture should be a priority”, but this is a completely populist phrase. How will culture actually be important in Bulgaria, a priority – not for the parties, …
More »2017.02
The economic promises of the parties – harmful even before they fail
Ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections, we are witnessing one of the strangest election campaigns in recent years. This is a campaign in which political parties are falling into heavy populism, promising us a flood of absurdities - economic growth of 6-7% per year, doubling pensions, huge increases in the average and minimum wage...
More »Belene NPP: The unnecessary energy project that refuses to die
A specter has been haunting the Bulgarian political space lately. The specter of the supposedly suspended Belene NPP project. Although it was suspended in 2012, as anyone who has followed the developments in recent months knows, some of the equipment needed for the construction of the new nuclear power plant is already on its way to Bulgaria, …
More »Media Fattening Month
In just a few days, the official election campaign will begin. Smiling and presentable party members will pour out promises of a bright future, solutions to every problem, a new child for every grandmother and… media vouchers. We decided to write a few lines about them, provoked by an incident on Facebook, which we became unwitting witnesses to. Yesterday (22.02) in …
More »Theft with medical referrals 101
The article talks about a real Bulgarian municipality and the incident is based on real and public data. We will call it “municipality X”, due to the fact that neither the name of the municipality nor the medical team working on its territory should be discredited. The article will present the state of …
More »How spending cuts affect election results
Six years ago, a study by Alberto Alesina, Dorian Carloni, and Giampaolo Lecce was published entitled “Electoral Consequences of Large Fiscal Adjustments.” In it, the authors dispute the thesis that large reductions in budget deficits (for which the term “fiscal adjustments” is used) lead to worse electoral results for political parties that …
More »Monthly Macroeconomic Monitor: Strong growth in industry, sharp acceleration in inflation
Highlights: Data indicate faster growth of the Bulgarian economy towards the end of 2016. In December, production in the manufacturing industry on an annual basis grew at the fastest rate since 2011. Growth in industrial turnover reached the highest rate in the last 21 months. Retail trade grows at a strong pace, stimulated by the Christmas holidays…
More »Bulgaria in the Index of Economic Freedom 2017
For the past 12 years, the Heritage Foundation, one of the leading and most renowned institutions in the field of economic freedom and policy research, has published its annual Index of Economic Freedom in countries around the world. 2016 is no exception, and Bulgaria reports better results compared to its performance last year, but …
More »What are the most dangerous economic promises that parties have made so far?
The most notable (and frightening!) part of the election campaign so far has been the unprecedented escalation of populist economic promises from parties that have already announced some of their economic programs. Almost all parties are pushing each other to propose "solidarity" economic policies, which would have very negative consequences for both the state budget and...
More »(Im)Possible reforms in the NHIF
The state in which the healthcare system was left by Dr. Petar Moskov is bordering on deplorable. The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) again ran a deficit of 50 million leva at the end of 2016, and by now it has grown to 72 million leva. The fingerprint system turned out to be …
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EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion