03.07.2014

"The support for the liquidity of the banking system will be used only if necessary. The buffer is in place, but it will not affect the government expenditure", Minister of Finance Petar Chobanov stated in an interview for Reuters and added that the banking system in Bulgaria had high capital adequacy and liquidity. According to him the latest events in the country will not affect the planned budget deficit of 1.8% of GDP for this year. Minister Chobanov also commented that they would not affect the planned economic growth either, which for 2014 was planned to be 2.1%. According to him we are observing accumulation of domestic investments "which gives us assurance that our forecast for 2014 is attainable", specifying that their growth exceeds 4% in each of the last two quarters.

The Minister of Finance stated that the international investors had demonstrated their confidence in Bulgaria given that last month our country raised almost EUR 1.5 billion on the international capital markets with a coupon of only 2.95% for a 10-year issue managed by HSBC, Citi and JP Morgan. He added that the coupon of the 2012 issue was 4.25%. Minister Chobanov specified that Bulgaria seldom tapped the international markets and then only when needed and added that it was hardly possible to repeat the exercise again this year.