The main reason for the lack of foreign investments in Bulgaria is the non-working judicial system and corruption. This is what the economist Dr. Julian Voinov said in the program "Bulgaria, Europe and the world in focus" on Radio "Focus“.
Despite the extremely good macroeconomic indicators that our country has – low debt and budget deficit, relatively good salaries, low taxation, investors do not come to Bulgaria, he pointed out. "They go to countries where all these characteristics are significantly worse. The main reason is corruption. Instead of counting on being protected when faced with a problem, investors are actually being pressured, their companies are being taken away. This is the main reason why investors avoid Bulgaria”, explained Dr. Voinov.
According to him, the share of foreign investments will increase after Bulgaria's entry into the Eurozone, as the country's credit rating will rise. "We will be perceived as part of an area where the risk is much lower. Trade will also increase – this has been statistically reported in all countries that have entered the Eurozone. As a result, the income of the population will increase. Experience shows that inflation upon entering the Eurozone is in minimal deviations – from 0.2 to 0.5%, which is a negligible change. This has not happened everywhere. In Croatia, for example, inflation was 12%, and literally a few months later it was 8%”, Julian Voinov gave an example.
The reason that the date January 1, 2025 is considered unrealistic for our country's admission to the Eurozone is that we do not meet the inflation criterion. "It will be assessed these days in the convergent reports of the European Commission and the European Central Bank, which will be considered in June. We are currently 2.5 to 3% short of the threshold we need to achieve. This gap is narrowing, but we will not be able to meet the benchmark for the one month remaining until the report. For this reason, January 1 is an unworkable date”, explained the economist.
He noted that there is no information campaign for the adoption of the euro. "The mainstream media, instead of being engaged in explaining why this is important, how it will technically happen, what people need to do, shows how we continue to argue whether we should go in or not. There are constant sociological surveys that show the division of society. This does not help in any way”, emphasized Dr. Voinov.
In his words, political turbulence always affects the economy. "The reason is that all the projects, which should be implemented mostly by the state administration, are somehow stopped, delayed. The motivation of the state administration to fulfill the set policies and goals of the previous government is being violated. New ministers come who have a different vision and want to make certain changes. The connection, once established with the business, is being lost”, explained the economist.
According to him, the decision to postpone the liberalization of the electricity market for domestic consumers is a reflection of the fear of political parties to take responsibility. "There are a lot of things that have not been done, and given the political turbulence and changes in the ministries, the concern is that within this three-month period, the appropriate actions will not be taken to make this liberalization happen,” explained the economist.< /p>
With the changes in the Law on Energy, the determination of electricity prices was seized from KEVR and transferred to the Ministry of Energy, noted Dr. Voinov. "It is very debatable whether they have the expertise there, which is necessary to set prices in the way it has been done so far in KEVR,”, he commented.