23.11.2012

"When I became Minister of Finance there were a lot of profiteers attacking the Bulgarian lev. They were working for an elimination of the currency board. This is a topic which we avoided to discuss so as not to create panic", reveals Finance Minister Simeon Djankov in an interview for Sega newspaper. "From the end of 2008 to May 2010 foreign profiteers with a lot of money pressed for unpegging the lev to the euro", he specifies. "There was huge speculation at that time", Djankov says. "It managed to devaluate severely the currencies of several of our neighbours, the Hungarian one, for instance. If we had not shown then that we had been ready to take very hard decisions, this could have happened to us as well", says Mr. Djankov.

"The state does as much as I believe is proper for the economy to grow. We invest a lot in infrastructure", says the Deputy Prime Minister and adds that not only EU funds are used for this but increased budgetary resources as well. "This is the best way to preserve jobs in times of crisis and to limit the drop in growth", says Mr. Djankov. In addition, he mentions that it is very hard to have a balanced budget or a budget surplus with 15 EU members being in recession. "Bulgarian economy grows, even though with slower rates than we expected 2 years ago. So, the maximum we could achieve this year is a deficit below 1%. In my view, any Finance Minister would be happy with such results", says Minister Djankov explicitly.

Asked about the status of the business environment as another key condition for economic growth, the Finance Minister mentions the three key conditions for investors: tax system, infrastructure and judiciary. Only after that come specific indicators. "I would label our tax system as No 1 in Europe and one of the best worldwide", says Mr. Djankov.