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Current Account deficit will widen further in 2006.
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The European Commission announced its regular monitoring report on Bulgarian preparation for membership
The critical findings in the Commission report were an expected step towards tougher positions for Bulgaria and Romania. The worsened European political climate which culminated with the rejection of the EU constitutional treaty logically produced tougher line from Brussels. The aggravation of the general political climate in th... -
The government and the IMF will probably fail to reach an agreement on the fiscal policy for 2006.
The IMF mission maintains its position that high level of public expenditures and the fast expansion of private sector external indebtedness nourish the current account deficit. The latter is expected to exceed 13% of GDP by the end of 2005. Meanwhile a new set of Central Bank restrictions on banking credit will be set in place ... -
Tax wedge on labor costs to be reduced by some 2 percentage points.
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Consumer price inflation keeps its pace in September.
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Proposed changes in real estate tax valuation.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) proposed an average 20%-increase of tax valuation of real estate property for 2006. The ‘tax value’ is used to calculate annual property tax, garbage collection municipal fees and property transaction tax. The change will probably be accepted by the government and consequently the parliament. There ... -
Tax changes for 2006 proposed by the Ministry of Finance.
From a political point of view the new governments seems to have decided to stick with the status quo of fiscal policy. This scenario includes an increase of wage (in public sector) and pension expenditures, combined with modest reduction in investment expenditures and controlled expansion of new public employment. On a macro le... -
Budget surplus continues to grow.
Recent data show that budget revenues grow at rates far exceeding the expected pace. For the eight months till August consolidated budget revenues reach BGN 11, 759 million, or 14% higher than the same period of 2004. Expenditures until August stay at BGN 10,440 million (14.4% growth over 2004). The resulting surplus of BGN 1,31...