Political turbulence cannot help but affect the country's financial stability. Lyubomir Karimanski, a financier and former MP, said this to BNR. "Political risk affects all sectors. There is no way until a clear horizon and vision for the management in the economic sector and administration is foreseen, and the individual indicators are sufficiently constant. Tax collections in 2023 are lower compared to collections in 2022 as a percentage of GDP. What are the forecasts for 2025 and 2026 based on? Will the projected deficit remain below 3%? When we see that there is no way for Bulgaria to develop stably economically and have growth, then we cannot let this finance minister continue to be like that. The facts are not on the side of the finance minister.
Both the resigned Prime Minister Denkov and Asen Vasilev are very strictly following the recording, which leaked some time ago, Karimanski pointed out in the program "12+3".
"Asen Vassilev and Kiril Petkov had said that they called Ursula von der Leyen and she explained that for the eurozone they had to figure out how to bypass several criteria to enter the framework. Should we count on Asen Vassilev doing exactly that in 2023? With various accounting manipulations, he bypassed individual rules in order to prepare our country for entry into the Eurozone.
At least one year before the introduction of the euro, people should be prepared, an explanatory campaign should be carried out, the expert stressed.
"We see some animated clips, it is not explained to the individual age groups. Why didn't they make it so that even now in the commercial network there are prices in both euros and leva? There is no organization and overall vision. I strongly doubt that we will be able to enter the Eurozone from January 1, 2025. ", says Karimanski.
He commented on the recommendations addressed to our country by the IMF - to abolish the flat tax and introduce progressive income taxation. They say that reforms are urgently needed. The focus is on productivity. If we plan to cosmetically merge the NRA and customs, what effect will we achieve? By what factor will the collection increase? And whether it could lead to a reduction of the gray sector, or vice versa – to deepen? Are we ready as a potential to bring the two together? The IMF is also paying attention to this."
"The accusations against the president that he is guilty of wanting to manage offices and everything else are absolutely unfounded. In the recording, both Asen Vasilev and Kiril Petkov say that the powers of the president should be limited as much as possible. With this restriction, the hands of the president are tied with regard to the finance minister and the prime minister," Karimanski also noted.