Bulgaria Finance Minister: We Threaten Oligarchs' Interests

Finance Minister Djankov promised Bulgaria would be the only EU state with balanced budget in 2010. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Simeon Djankov declared Sunday night that the government’s actions were clearly threatening the interests of political impostors and oligarchs.

“I do not care about criticism by failed politicians such as Rumen Ovcharov, Sergey Stanishev, Stefan Sofiyanski. These political impostors emptied the state, we are trying to get the Bulgarian state out of the crisis,” Djankov told Nova TV.

The Finance Minister said he was not concerned at all that the joining of the government of INSEAD Professor Ilian Mihov could reduce his powers.

To the contrary, he revealed that the two of them had a friendly talk on Saturday in which Mihov asked Djankov about the level of schools in Bulgaria because he has two young kids.

“We talked about the economy, the school here, the more smart minds come here, the better. That is why the entire junta of swindlers is scared, and they should be scared,” Djankov declared.

In his words, the “oligarchs” wanted to see Bulgaria get out of the currency peg and slip away from the Eurozone. This would serve the interests of those with close ties to Russia who “want to live in the past”, Djankov said, contrasting such interests to the government’s will to turn Bulgaria into an averagely wealthy EU nation.

The Finance Minister said that Bulgaria was deliberately going to get into monthly deficits in the first quarter of 2010 in order to stimulate the economy. Yet, after April the state is to generate surpluses in only to end the year with a balanced budget, which according to Djankov would be the only EU country to do so.

“In only five months I managed to get Bulgaria out of an absolutely terrifying deficit that the previous government had led us to,” he stated.

He also stressed the fact that the balanced budget would help Bulgaria to join the Eurozone, and to keep taxes low and even reduce them in the coming years. He pointed out that Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro would allow the government to use the current fiscal reserve of BGN 8 B for public and infrastructure projects.

Djankov said Bulgaria would apply for the Eurozone waiting room, the ERM 2, some time in the spring depending on the actions of the European Commission. Bulgaria has already submitted to the EC its convergence program, and expects a reply in two months, after which it will have one month to reply with a final version.

The Finance Minister made it clear that once the state budget is modified in June, BGN 350 M will be allocated for healthcare which is priority No. 1; the second top priority is the infrastructure projects.

Djankov declared himself in favor of development of organic agriculture in Bulgaria, and promised to lobby for severe restrictions on the introduction of genetically modified crops as the GMO Act is to have its second reading in the Parliament.

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