/ world today news/ There is no financial instability in Bulgaria, which would put pressure on the future caretaker government and it would have to take out urgent external loans. There is no need to update the budget, it is about political games.
Most of the economists and financiers whom BGNES Agency interviewed united around these two positions.
Associate Professor Stoyan Alexandrov, economist and Minister of Finance /1993-1994/:
“There is no need to update the budget. These are purely political games… Talks about updating the budget in more than 90 percent have political meaning. Everyone makes political dividends. It is half-heartedly argued that more a calm environment for the caretaker government. That doesn’t sound serious.”
“Preparing money for the next government is risky. You don’t know who will enter the next parliament… The president also has an interest in the cabinet appointed by him leaving with some dignity. He wants, if he has the opportunity, to wide around the neck. But in the end there are realities. If the official cabinet is faced with difficulties, it should not just float on the surface and say “we were very successful”… There is no financial instability” .
Professor Hristina Vucheva, economist and Minister of Finance in the first official government /1994-1995/:
“Regarding the so-called update of the state budget. When the National Assembly is asked to change the adopted annual budget during the year, one should always take into account not only the quantitative dimension of revenues and expenses, but above all the knowledge of the budget as an expression of the program and the intentions of any government. With such an approach, it becomes understandable why the update in the summer of 2013 could be understood and supported, and the current one – with almost the same percentages for the implementation of revenues – incomprehensible it came from a new government with a new program and new policy intentions. Because of the mentioned, the then return of the law on the update was an incomprehensible action, as well as the proposal that he supports for a new debt of BGN 5. It makes sense it would be if the 2014 Budget was updated by the new parliament, which adopted the program when the new government was elected and understood the meaning of the requested changes”.
“Probably someone remembers the events of the first months of 1997, when the people’s representatives voted to allow the interim government to sign a so-called memorandum with the International Monetary Fund. This document made it possible to promptly transfer the necessary funds from the IMF, so as the existing foreign exchange reserve was reduced to 400 million dollars, with which it was impossible to introduce the fixed rate of the lev to the German mark. the Bulgarian economy. Now everything is completely different and the problem is different, therefore the meaning is different. We have European laws and they must be respected”.
Lyubomir Datsov, economist and former Deputy Minister of Finance /2003-2009/:
“I don’t see any reason to update the budget, except for a purely political one, but political in the Bulgarian way, and not the way politics is normally done. One thing is certain, and that is that the budget update at the moment is absolutely pointless in the way which is made”.
“There is nothing that would require urgent borrowing right now, other than that eventual $2 billion that is slated, an indirect loan to the Deposit Guarantee Fund. Given what the size of the fiscal reserve is, there is no reason, which would compel the incumbent government to issue debt, beyond the additional limitations provided by law”.
Associate professor Emil Hersev, economist and former deputy governor of the BNB:
“There is no artificial crisis created around the budget. Rather, I attribute what is happening to the way politicians are used to speaking in our country. But similar things also happen in other countries, especially in Southern Europe. One budget, no matter how often update will never respond to all possible changes that occur. For this reason, so-called buffers are built into it. With them, it can survive without major restructuring.”
“I don’t see a reason, basis and need for taking out new loans. No one points out a specific reason why loans should be withdrawn. The thesis of President Rosen Plevneliev to give the caretaker government the opportunity to take out loans is not based on real necessity. Maybe for the comfort of the caretaker government…”
Professor Krastyo Petkov, economist and trade unionist:
“Only a few weeks ago, on my own behalf and on behalf of a whole group of economists, I stated that under no circumstances should the budget be updated now, under the pressure of pre-election passions. Now, with even greater confidence and arguments, I assert that it should not no massive loans are taken – neither internal nor external until the end of the year. Stop the explosive growth of Bulgaria’s debts until the situation is clarified”.
“Politicians have recently been trying to convince public opinion and specialists in the state that we need new loans in huge amounts, they are talking about BGN 7 billion. If this happens, it would return the treasury and the Bulgarian financial system to the point of 1997, when they were several hundred million dollars of operating money left in the coffers. There’s no way that’s going to happen. And even if someone tries to push it through by giving ultimatums or looking out for themselves to spend, that would collapsed the only success that Bulgaria achieved in recent years, thanks to the currency board. It is about fiscal stability”.
Bozhidar Danev, Chairman of the BSK:
“There are voices calling for a loan from the future caretaker government. This means that we are not a parliamentary republic. Borrowing is done by law, with the sanction of parliament, and if this is done it will prove that we are not a parliamentary democracy . Are there any politicians in our country who will take such a risk?”.
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