Ex Bulgarian FinMin: No Grounds to Up Minimum Wage

Milen Velchev (pictured), former Finance Minister from the quota of the NMSP party of ex Prime Minister and Tsar, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, says he feels for successor Simeon Djankov. Photo by BGNES

There are no grounds to increase the minimum monthly wage every year when the average revenues are not going up, over lack of economy growth triggered by lack of growth in productivity.

The statement was made by Milen Velchev, former Finance Minister from the quota of the party of ex Prime Minister and Tsar, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, National Movement for Stability and Prosperity, (NMSP).

Speaking in an interview for Nova TV Monday, Velchev said if he was Finance Minister, he would not up minimum wages in May 2012, after the 2011 increase, as is the plan of the cabinet of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB).

The former Minister admitted that the previous cabinet of the Three-Way Coalition made a mistake, under the pressure of coalition partner and leader – the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), in steering away from the golden Swiss rule – to up each year retirement pensions by 50% of the growth of social security revenues and 50% of the inflation growth.

He was adamant Bulgaria must return and adhere to this rule and congratulated the current cabinet on being cautious about increasing retirement pensions.

Velchev said he sympathized with now-Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov's, efforts and hard work not always leading to success.

When asked if Bulgaria is threatened by the debt crisis in Greece and Italy, he answered negatively, stressing that thanks to the two governments steering the country in the right direction between 2001 and 2009, Bulgaria is not in a crisis as deep as the Greek and Italian ones.

The ex Finance Minister revealed he acted as consultant in the privatization deal of Bulgaria's tobacco monopoly Bulgartabac, but declined offering further details over not being authorized to comment anything beyond the public information. Velchev only explained he had not been consulting a Bulgarian bidder, only the Russian bank which was the buyer in the deal.

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