23.11.2011

Investment, trade and tourism have already suffered the negative consequences of Greece\'s instability, but Bulgaria has been holding pretty well and has managed to maintain its fiscal and macroeconomic stability. That was what Deputy Minister of Finance Boryana Pencheva said in an interview for AFP. FDI, of which 10% comes traditionally from Greek firms, has slumped to around 1 billion Euro this year from 9 billion Euro in 2007. Falling exports to Bulgaria\'s main markets in the EU and weak domestic consumption have also been forecast to bring economic growth down next year, but on the other hand Bulgaria might profit from its proximity to the biggest casualty of the eurozone debt crisis - 2,000 small and medium-sized Greek companies have registered here over the past year mainly due to the low tax rates, AFP points out.

AFP reminds that a series of austerity measures has allowed the government to keep its own public finances relatively sound. Bulgaria is on course to wrap up 2011 with one of the best ratios of national debt to economic output in EU\'s 27, of just 16.0 percent. The budget deficit is also expected to fall below 2.5 percent of output this year, 1.3 percent in 2012

The government and local analysts are adamant that the concerns about the impact of the Greek crisis on the Bulgarian banking sector are exaggerated, AFP points out. According to Deputy Minister of Finance Boryana Pencheva, quoted by the Agency \"The so-called Greek banks are separate legal entities registered in Bulgaria and subjected to the regulatory requirements of the Bulgarian National Bank\". Pencheva added before AFP that they were \"just as secure as any other bank\".

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