03.12.2012

"Bulgaria has managed to remain stable in a very grave situation and this is something one realizes when one has already lost it", says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov in an interview for 24 Hours daily. Asked about the approaching of the pre-election period and the expenditure related to it, the Finance Minister replies that he does not believe in the thoughtless spending of money. In his view, people understand when someone makes policy and when they just give money for election purposes. He insists on estimating revenue and expenditure against a real economic growth rather than an artificially overestimated one.

"I expect that we end up the year with a gross reserve of BGN 7.7 billion and unpaid contracts of below BGN 200 million", says the Minister of Finance. Mr. Djankov explains the declared possibility that the next budget is implementable at a lower-than-projected growth of GDP by the fact that he follows the macroeconomic model but he usually makes a more conservative budget. He also explains in the interview more about the ambition to set up preliminary tax investigation, about his successes and failures, as well as about the high risk of elimination of the currency board arrangement in 2009.