Economic and fiscal policy

Recently, Bulgaria's possible entry into the EU's monetary union, the so-called Eurozone, has become a hot topic. Over the past week, a number of experts, led by the former economic team of the NMSV and Ivan Kostov, took turns explaining in various media why Bulgaria should abolish the currency board as soon as possible and …

The national representative survey "Attitudes towards Tax Policy in Bulgaria" was recently published. It was prepared by the Market Links agency on behalf of the environmental association "For the Earth" and presents many curious facts about public opinion regarding the Bulgarian tax system. Since the topic has always been of primary interest to us, the authors in ...

The newspaper "Sega" reports in its article that from 2017, a number of municipalities with financial difficulties will resort to raising taxes and fees. 36 municipalities are named, including Pernik, where the property acquisition tax is rising from 2% to 2.5%, Kardzhali with a plan to collect an additional 3.3 million ...

Even if there are daily and quarterly stickers, the question is how both the outdated and newly built road infrastructure will be maintained. Despite the resistance shown by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW), the introduction of daily and quarterly vignettes from January 1, 2017 was adopted at first reading in the relevant parliamentary committee...

Close your eyes and start imagining. Imagine that you have been working for years and conscientiously paying taxes and social security contributions, although at certain times you do not like how the state disposes of them. Despite everything, you continue to believe that things will get better. Imagine that you are putting money into your own …

Last week, Reuters reported that the government had selected the managers for a new government debt issue worth a total of 3.9 billion leva. As a right-wing economic thinker who views budget deficits financed by debt as extremely harmful to an economy, I could not pass up this …

We paid for a bridge connecting two puddles and for a sociological survey about potholes on the roads. What is happening to my money – this is the question that every Bulgarian taxpayer should ask himself after leafing through the pages of the new “Black Book of Government Waste in Bulgaria”. What is happening …

Something has changed in the last year. No, it's not like we no longer hear about all the wonderful projects being built with the European Union's cohesion money – the political vocabulary is still full of highways, stadiums, halls and ribbons – but recently other words have been joining them. And …

Following the terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Kenya in 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry commented that the fight against extremism and violence goes beyond simply identifying and removing specific terrorists from the streets, but depends on providing “economic opportunities to marginalized, at-risk youth.”[1] Cleared from …

In March, Bulgaria placed three Eurobond issues on international markets for a total value of around EUR 3.1 billion. The issues were considered successful given the good yield achieved compared to the 10-year Eurobonds issued in the summer of 2014 for EUR 1.5 billion. Although the country’s need to exit …