Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Asen Vasilev positively assessed the idea of the caretaker government to take out a new loan. In Veliko Tarnovo, he defined it as meaningful, because in March next year there is a large maturity date and many funds must be returned. According to Vasilev, if this loan were withdrawn now, the interest rates would be lower than in 2023. Moreover, if the loan was taken for such a purpose, it was a reasonable decision.
According to the former Minister of Finance, the current state of the economy in Bulgaria does not at all suggest the possibility of a financial apocalypse. On the contrary. Our country was prepared for the new logistics flows in the financial map of the world.
Аccording to Vasilev, the business in our country has profited very well from what is happening on the European markets. The reason is that electricity in Bulgaria was the cheapest in all of Europe. This provided a specific advantage to our business.
Something more. At the macro level, corporate profits this year increased by as much as 42% after deductions. In some cases, the profit was even 100 percent. The only bad news for business was that the government has bet that next year the minimum wage will be half the average.
This means that it will become around BGN 860-870. All this will lead to an increase in wages and pensions. The prices were moving in the direction of the average level in Europe. But there is no way Bulgaria will become a Central European country if wages continue to be low. On the contrary. They had to get ahead of the price hike.
According to Vasilev, if the electricity keeps its current levels, it will mean that the business will be able to have bigger profits and part of them will start reaching the employees. In the first half of the year alone, declared foreign direct investments amounted to 700 million euros.
