At a parliamentary hearing last week, we witnessed yet another shameful circus regarding the issue of the future of Bulgaria’s currency regime. The Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, Dimitar Radev, attempted to evade responsibility for providing an analysis of the consequences of Bulgaria’s potential accession to the eurozone. In …
More »The fiscal mistakes that the new parliament must fix
In last week's article, I presented an analysis of the state of the Bulgarian economy and public finances according to the most recent data from the National Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Finance. The situation, as we have seen, is not at all rosy. Long-term investments have collapsed, private consumption is also starting to weaken, and the negative contribution of net exports to …
More »The Bulgarian economy is heading towards a crisis for which the state budget is not prepared
As the winter season approaches, the economic outlook is becoming increasingly bleak, both for Bulgaria and for the whole of Europe. Data shows that gas storage facilities in the European Union are filled to relatively satisfactory levels and natural gas prices have started to decline. However, recession seems inevitable in a number of key European economies, led by …
More »With the plan to adopt the euro, the government is putting the cart before the horse
In the context of the already numerous internal conflicts in the ruling coalition, which have been going on for months, another one has been brewing in recent weeks, this time regarding the possible introduction of the euro in Bulgaria from January 2024. At the beginning of the month, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev (from "We Continue the Change") tried to push for the introduction of ...
More »What can the government do against inflation?
The inflation crisis in the country (and the world) is deepening and looks set to continue to deepen in the coming months. The war in Ukraine and the economic sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia have reinforced the already strong inflationary trends and are leading to a shock increase in the prices of a number of raw materials – food, energy and industrial (for …
More »How will the war in Ukraine affect inflation?
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world not only politically but also economically. The sanctions imposed in response to the war are almost unprecedented in their scale and scope and could lead to an economic divide deeper than that of the Cold War. The war and the sanctions will …
More »Three questions for Assen Vassilev about Budget 2022
Today, the first state budget prepared by the government of the so-called "Coalition of Change" will be submitted for discussion in the National Assembly. Expectations, especially for the party that leads the coalition and controls the Ministry of Finance - "We Continue the Change" - are high. GERB governments, especially the last one, deservedly do not have a very good reputation ...
More »Why is there talk of a larger deficit in Budget 2022?
Acting Finance Minister Valeri Belchev "corrected" himself on Friday and revealed that the deficit in his ministry's planned state budget for 2022 will actually be 5.1% of GDP, not 2.9%, as he initially said a week ago. I recall that at that surprise press conference, the minister did not know what the parameters of the main ...
More »Why the maximum social security income should not be raised
This weekend, the negotiations for a government between "We Continue the Change", "There Is Such a People", "Democratic Bulgaria" and the "Bulgarian Socialist Party" ended. Or at least the public part of them ended - the one that was broadcast live on the Internet. From what we saw, the negotiations generally went in relative harmony between the positions of the individual parties. Some …
More »What is Bitcoin Part I: The Fundamental Problem It Solves
What is Bitcoin? What is it for? What problem does it solve? What is this “cryptocurrency” anyway? And why does humanity care about something like this? Thirteen years after its creation, Bitcoin (and along with it other cryptocurrencies) remains a mystery to the average person. Even many specialists and experts in the fields of computer science, …
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