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Economist Mihail Krastev: The budget deficit exceeds 3 billion BGN, the situation continues to worsen

Mihail Krastev
Photo: Yuliana Kornazheva

''The data is alarming because it does not reflect the real picture of the deficit in the treasury. In the spring of 2024, the Bulgarian National Bank made a contribution to the budget, that it was not obliged to make and which cannot be expected to happen annually. If we add these over 600 million BGN, the deficit exceeds 2 billion BGN. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, over 1 billion BGN of the available budget is money for municipalities. Effectively, the budget deficit exceeds 3 billion BGN (EUR 1.5 billion) and the situation continues to worsen'', economist Mihail Krastev said in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio. "However, this is not the prerogative of politicians in the political crisis we are in – they do not talk about finance, economics, or social policies, but only about their internal party interests'', said Mihail Krastev.

According to the economist, the crisis in public finances can be solved either by generating new debt or by increasing the tax burden on businesses and households, "which is happening gradually anyway, even though politicians claim that there is no such thing". He added that this is happening through the increase of the maximum monthly insurable income and the minimum wage.

''We are close to the economic nonsense of having the minimum wage approach or even equal the average wage in some parts of the country", Mihail Krastev further stated, predicting that this narrowing gap will lead to cataclysms.




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