site.btaSocialists: Birth Rate Decline Tendency Reversed Over Past Year

Sofia, July 31 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) reported a reversing of the declining birth rate tendency of the past year. A total of 1,916 more babies were born in the first half of this year, compared to the same period of 2013, Coalition for Bulgaria MP Boris Tsvetkov told journalists in Parliament on Thursday, voicing hope that this will continue in the second half of 2014.

A total of 31,524 babies were born in the first six months of this year, compared to 29,608 in the first half of 2013, he noted.

The socialists attribute the increased birth rate to the Oresharski Cabinet measures in the social sphere and more specifically to the increased child benefits for raising an infant, introduced on July 1, 2013, as well as the calming of the economy.

Socialist Sofia Municipal Councillor Nikolai Belalov said he doubts these newborns are the "protest's babies". The increased birth rate indicates that young families have believed things are getting better over the past year, he noted. "When people are calm, when they see that a sort of future is provided for them, they are making babies. This was obviously not the case during GERB's government and we have such a collapse that it can be defined as a genocide," Belalov said. The news is that Plamen Oresharski's Government, which is leaving, reversed this tendency of destroying the Bulgarian nation, he added.

Tsvetkov noted that 2014 may turn out to be the first year with a birth rate growth, following four years of decline. He said that the number of newborns was growing sustainably between 2003 and 2009, when they peaked at 80,956. According to the socialist MP, there was a drastic decline during GERB's government, with 66,578 registered newborns in 2013.

The socialists, however, said that the problem with kindergarten places remains. Bourgas (on the Black Sea) and Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria) have absorbed 100 per cent of the funds provided for building kindergartens and creches as of June 30, 2014. Tsvetkov voiced concern about the absorption of funds for new kindergartens in Sofia and Varna (on the Black Sea).