The more there is talk about the potential adoption of the euro in Bulgaria, the more often the argument is made that our country will be able to attract more investment in this way. This is the main line along which it is claimed that entering the Eurozone will enrich Bulgarian citizens – more investment means more jobs …
More »Steve Hanke: Bulgaria would make a mistake if it adopted the Euro
Author: Steve Hanke, Forbes.com After Bulgaria escaped communism in 1990, Bulgarians experienced several hardships. The economy collapsed, there were bankruptcies, and this Balkan paradise experienced hyperinflation, reaching a staggering 242% in February 1997. Yes, on a monthly basis. Anticipating many of the problems that follow currency devaluation, I became …
More »Is it a good idea to join the Eurozone?: Debate on bTV
Defending the position "against" Bulgaria's possible entry into the Eurozone, our editor-in-chief Georgi Vuldzhev entered into a debate with former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Nikolay Vassilev on bTV. According to Vuldzhev, the negatives of entering the Eurozone far outweigh the potential positives: If Bulgaria enters the Eurozone, which means eliminating …
More »Is Ivan Kostov wrong about the currency board?
We at EKIP are honored to publish a fundamental critical analysis by economist Georgi Ganev of the acclaimed "Plan B in the Currency Board Discussion" by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Kostov. In this "plan", Kostov practically proposes that the currency board in Bulgaria be dismantled, even though it was created precisely at the beginning of its own …
More »Signal to the EC regarding the restriction of cash payments
| Full text of the opinion | Dear readers, as you know from the EQUIP, we are strictly monitoring and opposing the attempts of the Ministry of Finance to push through yet another restriction on cash payments by reducing the allowable limit for such transactions to a maximum of 5,000 leva - a proposal that is part of a draft law...
More »8 truths about taxes in Bulgaria
As is well known, as long as there is someone reading: 1. Taxes are on average 50% of the income of an individual or household, everyone can check the individual picture at kolkodavam.bg; 2. There is money for airplanes and everything else, but there are also irrational budget expenditures of 0.5-1% of GDP...
More »It's high time we abolished the interest tax
In 2013, GERB introduced one of the most dangerous and illogical taxes – the “interest tax”. The introduction of this tax was also strange from a purely political point of view, because at least in theory, a right-wing party should do everything possible to reduce the tax burden on households and businesses. In 2014 …
More »Why Bulgaria should not enter the Eurozone
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 …
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 »Investments in conditions of economic uncertainty - Bulgaria 2015-2016
Business forecasts about the future state of the economic climate have a significant impact on investment in an economy. Theoretically, increased economic uncertainty invariably leads to a decrease in investment activity (Bloom 2014 and Jurado et al. 2015). However, its quantitative measurement is a difficult undertaking. Economics uses an extremely diverse set of methods to …
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EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion