Financiers: Borisov Govt Patched Things Up in 2010 H2

Harsev believes the government has actually done the right thing by doing almost nothing to counter the crisis. Photo by Politika

Leading Bulgarian financiers have criticized the Borisov Cabinet for its response to the economic crisis while also recognizing that the government has in a way reacted to it “adequately.”

“The government has been acting adequately in a time of crisis inasmuch as it hasn't done almost anything,” economist Emil Harsev said speaking on BNT Wednesday.

He elaborated that, in his view, taking international bailout loans or other similar steps will be deadly for Bulgaria's finances.

Harsev also believes that what he described as vast spending on part of the government warrants the greatest criticism of all of its policies.

Georgi Ganev, a program director of the Sofia-based Center for Liberal Strategies, believes that in the first half of 2010, the Borisov Cabinet emptied the state budget but managed to patch up the state finances in the second half of the year.

Ganev thinks that Bulgaria is still on the bottom of the economic crisis as most firms have not decided yet that “the worst has passed”.

Harsev said in turn that the Bulgarian economy probably started recovering in the third and fourth quarter of 2009 but warned that the recovery will be a long and protracted process.

The two financiers believe that the tourism sector will probably be the first one to really bounce back, while the construction sector will never return to the level of the 2007 boom. They think that banking deposits will be the best investment in Bulgaria in 2011 since the high deposit interest rates are coupled with low risk. 

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