The debt that we already have, and which everyone admits is over 10 billion euros – is supplemented by state-guaranteed debt in the amount of 4.6 billion euros. This is much more than last year and even the previous years. This was stated in “Hello, Bulgaria” by the member of the BNB Board of Directors Lyubomir Karimanski, commenting on his warning from the last few days that the state debt for next year may be even greater than the government announces.
He also explained what state-guaranteed debt means. It includes all guarantees that the state issues – not only loans, but also other guarantees to public companies, such as BEH and other companies that take out loans. "The question is how they service them – can they pay them and at what interest rates", he emphasized.
And he emphasized that his criticism is not only in this direction: "In the last few budgets, the state collects 100% of the dividends of enterprises such as the “Kozloduy“ NPP, while at the same time the plant itself takes loans from a bank to finance the studies for the 7th and 8th units. In this way, it pays interest on loans, instead of using its own dividend – only for the state to report income in the budget".
Karimanski also commented on the issue of interest on loans. According to him, despite Bulgaria being accepted into the eurozone and Schengen and despite the increased credit rating, our long-term government securities are not traded at a lower yield than the French ones. This means that the state is paying more for interest. Next year alone they will exceed 1 billion euros, and according to him, this is "a lot".
"The more we increase the debt, the worse the conditions under which we can borrow money become. Especially if we do not show productivity growth and exports deteriorate", he warned. And he stressed that the situation will worsen if "the debt is not used for investments, but for supporting the administration. "This is the biggest problem – "new loans do not create conditions for growth," he is categorical.
Regarding next year's budget and people's feeling that they are "being fingered", Karimanski said that "this is a vicious practice of several budgets since 2023". "Politicians allowed themselves to deduct expenses related to the maintenance of personnel in the public sector, especially for only part of it. Because they need to find money to cover all these increased salaries that were not actually made. They were simply increased. And this is a snowball. It is the same in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other state structures," he pointed out.
And he recalled: "I have appealed many times to deduct what is not part of the budget, but is in a specialized law for the institutions - the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Budget. It does not belong there. Its place is in the State Budget Law. That's where all this public spending should be".