"The government has decided to take over the debt of "Toplofikatsia Sofia" worth 1.6 billion. Part of this amount will be introduced into the Electricity System Security Fund, which will prevent the re-introduction of the "Duty to the Society" fee. The debt is probably smaller - 720 million is the amount that must be returned. Unfortunately, this is far from the only problem. For these 9 months, we have worsened the business environment, and as a result of all this, we report a bottom in investments. We have replaced real reforms with PR of reforms. We are on the threshold of another postponement of entry into the Eurozone.
This was stated by the chairman of AIKB Vasil Velev in the studio of "Day ON AIR".
He thinks it will not be possible to adopt the euro on January 1 next year and there will be a delay.
"Nobody is already committed to a date of January 1, 2025 for the adoption of the euro. The way is not to increase taxes, but to carry out reforms and a more balanced budget. The reasons are much deeper, they are from the lack of reforms, slowdown of the economy, transition from growth to decline in industry. We also have a collapse in exports, January is down 15% and there is no progress on any reforms. We are also going backwards in the pension system, there is no administrative reform, the education system too, we have lost 70,000 jobs in the last quarter", Velev said on Bulgaria ON AIR.
Investments in 2023 have bottomed out. We have the lowest ratio of the cost of acquiring tangible fixed assets to GDP.
"The green deal mixed with the swapped sanctions led to the deindustrialization of Europe. And then we proposed measures that were missed. And now we have a failure to fulfill national priorities. Incomplete Schengen, no clear date for land-based Schengen, another Eurozone delay. Every next growth forecast is downward, for investments in 2023 we have a bottom, we have a PR about how foreign investments have grown", the guest said.
The recovery plan has also been delayed - we were supposed to get it in January.
"The cabinet had written that by the end of the year BGN 98 million will be co-financed in subcontracting of technological modernization for small and medium-sized enterprises. These 98 million are up to 50% of the entire amount. 200 million could have already been financed. Instead of the cabinet fulfilling this promise, this money was canceled and returned to the Resilience Facility. And now they will be lost because they are diverted to other activities," he added.