/View.info/ Budgetary and financial discipline must be strengthened. At the moment, the path we are on does not bode well. This was stated by Vasil Velev, the chairman of the Association of Industrial Capital.
He commented on BNT about the development prospects for Bulgaria in the next few months.
“With this increase in foreign debt that is planned, with this budget deficit that is planned by the caretaker government of Bliznashki, if this happens, it is very likely that the country will lose its investment credit rating. It is very likely that credit will become more expensive, to make it difficult to refinance the debt,” predicts Vasil Velev.
He expressed his disagreement with the proposed update of the state budget. “You can’t take endless loans that are spent not on investments, but on current expenses,” Velev emphasized and added: “This really resembles the Greek scenario.”
The government of Acting Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki, by order of President Rosen Plevneliev, decided to propose an update of the state budget, which foresees taking a new loan in the amount of BGN 4.5 billion and increasing the deficit well above the 3% allowed by the European Commission. It is assumed that the update will be adopted by the new National Assembly, which was formed after the elections on October 5. The first attempt to change the parameters of the budget was made in the last days of the previous 42 National Assembly by the deputies of GERB and DPS. In the end, Boyko Borisov, who pushed the most for the update, surprisingly withdrew his request.
Most economists both in the summer and now are sharply critical of some aspects of the proposed budget change. According to them, the request to take out a new loan is not imperative, but rather a “luxury”. They point out that our country has 8.9 billion BGN in the fiscal reserve at the end of August. It is fully sufficient to meet the payments on the external debt from September to January-February next year.
#borrow #endlessly
