The top 10 most profitable companies in Bulgaria registered a total profit of 650 million euro in 2014. At the same time over 50 percent of Bulgarian retirees receive 150 euro a month or less. This is what the official statistics show and the data are especially alarming as they show the huge gaps between various groups in the Bulgarian society. How can one speak of a social market economy, as written in the constitution of this country, when some receive average salaries of 1000 euro a month, like people working in the banks, in the sphere of energy and in the insurance companies, while others need to live on 65 euro a month, as this is the social pension?

The question does not make sense from an economic point of view because those who have jobs receive accordingly – the more they work and the higher the results, the higher their earnings get. And there can be no restrictions about that. But the question is not a rhetorical one for the elderly who cannot work anymore and depend on what they earned during their active years. So many poor people are not of the interest of neither the political class, nor the business. The 4 banks that are part of the top-ten list of the most profitable companies would have had better profits if it was not true that 70 percent of Bulgarians have no bank deposits. The revenues of Russian energy giant Lukoil would have been bigger, too, if a supposed fuel market cartel, keeping the prices high, did not exist. The company would not have been planning to leave Bulgaria if it could have better revenues in an honest way.

On July 1 pensions in Bulgaria will rise and the average one will reach about 170 euro a month. According to the law, pensions are revalued every year. Now the rise is 2.6 percent for all of the retirees. This means that an average pensioner will receive 3.5 euros more each month. The highest possible pension remains 455 euro a month. Nobody is proud or happy about this miserable rise because it would not change anything in the lives of elderly people in Bulgaria. Their number is getting bigger as the ageing of the population continues while young people keep leaving the country in search of better life. When the number of poor people grows the market shrinks and there is no GDP growth. In this case there is no money for pension hikes. This is a vicious circle and no solution has been found in Bulgaria. However, in almost the whole of Europe people show that solutions exist and that economy could develop well and that people can live normal lives. It is high time Bulgarians found out the solution. We have tried corruption, mafia, contraband, illegal business, etc. but it has not worked. Now we could go back on the road others already walked and try to catch up with them.

English: Alexander Markov