The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva warns the cabinet in Sofia not to rely on one-off measures to increase revenue. She commented on the situation in the country in an interview for "120 Minutes" on bTV. It will be broadcast later today. But an excerpt in which Georgieva comments on the budget and the deficit was published late last night.
„And here I remember something you said a year ago - you sent a message to the government in Sofia: "Don't spend more than we produce in Bulgaria". Did they listen to you?“, asks Svetoslav Ivanov.
“Don't spend money you don't have! There is a positive development. The government has the will to propose a budget in which the deficit will fall to 3 percent. That is, we are reducing spending on money we don't have“, says Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.
“There is still work to be done. Because what is being proposed so far are one-time measures to increase revenues and it is not very clear what exactly we are doing to reduce expenses“, she points out.
“Our advice is – if you want to sustainably reduce the deficit and have the comfort of having buffers for future shocks, the revenues must be based on something that is permanent, systematic. And in terms of expenses – "be careful not to cut what you need to increase productivity," says Kristalina Georgieva.