Budget 2018 is a bad remix of Budget 2017

The 2018 draft budget is a worse remix of the 2017 budget, which itself was pretty bad. So, the 2018 budget is downright tragic, in my opinion. This was said by economist Georgi Vuldzhev, from the Expert Club for Economics and Politics (EKIP), on the Boom & Bust show on Bloomberg TV Bulgaria with hosts Vladimir Sirkarov and Kuzman Iliev. "With this budget, we are doing more of the same thing in the hope that the result will be different."

"Public spending is increasing a lot again. This time there is an even greater increase in taxes. It is mainly about social security contributions. The social security contribution to the Pension Fund is being increased by 1 percentage point. The minimum social security thresholds are also being raised, which is why there was great friction between employers and unions."

Despite all these increases and despite the fact that this year we will end with a surplus in the national budget, which is even higher than last year's, a deficit is being projected again for 2018, the guest emphasized. "This is being done without any real argumentation. A deficit is being projected that will be caused mainly by personnel costs. It is not even about investments."

"The budget is very social. In parallel with salaries, pensions are also being raised. The problem is that the salary increases are being made in areas that need structural reform, where costs are not optimized and are sinking."

Is there an excuse for the government not to balance the budget during a period of economic growth?

Original publication on Bloombergtv.bg

Did you like it? Take a minute to support the EKIP on Patreon!