site.btaMedia Review: January 30

The discussions around the 2025 State Budget dominate the media on Thursday. 

STATE BUDGET

Mediapool.bg has an article saying that “the deficit of BGN 3.6 billion announced by [Finance Minister] Temenuzhka Petkova turned out to be misleading”. Six days after she first announced the State’s financial analysis “Petkova indirectly admitted that these are not the correct numbers,” the media outlet writes. The revelation came after the "mistake" was spotted by Assen Vassilev, former finance minister from Continue the Change, who has been blamed for the wasteful fiscal policy in recent years. In recent days Vassilev tried to explain that Petkova's expected revenues for January 2025 – BGN 3.68 billion, are unrealistically low against the background of the reported in January 2024 BGN 5.23 billion. In response, through a position to the media, distributed by the press centre of the Ministry of Finance, it became clear that Petkova was not talking about the deficit under the Consolidated Fiscal Programme (CFP) but only about the deficit under the State Budget. This is misleading and incorrect, because when reporting the deficit, the Finance Ministry always talks about the CFP deficit (which includes all public spending - not only the State Budget, but also the budgets of the judiciary, municipalities, universities, social security, the health fund, the Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, EU funds, etc.), the article states. Sometimes the discrepancy between the deficit of the State Budget alone and the consolidated deficit is significant. For example, in January 2024 the State Budget was in deficit by BGN 246 million and the consolidated budget was in surplus by BGN 423 million. In her verbal statement to the media at the Council of Ministers on January 23, Petkova did not specified that she was talking only about part of the State accounts, but said that the data were "according to the estimates of the Ministry of Finance", the media outlet highlights.

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On Nova Television’s morning show, Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria MP Martin Dimitrov criticized the data presented by Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova on the State Budget. "You cannot talk for a whole week about how terrible the situation is and finally give BGN 400 million of privileges to restaurateurs. Why is this sector more important than medicines, than bread?" he asked. "Petkova's first figures showed a surplus for January, but she was talking about a deficit. Not only did she provide little data, but there was an error in it. Subsequently, she had to explain that the information was not about the consolidated programme, but only about the state budget. Then, when her colleagues presented the measures to combat the grey economy, they said that they needed EUR 4 billion to get the deficit under control. So the gap is not 18 billion," Dimitrov noted. He added that CC-DB believes that the State should take measures to reduce spending. “We've proposed several things. First - that in stages, over a 6-year period, Government employees should start paying their social security contributions. There are thousands of retirees in the Ministry of Interior, this cannot continue. Regarding the salaries they will receive if they are released, we have come up with the idea of staggering the payment over two years. Thirdly, the private hospitals should be made public," Dimitrov added. Asked what his coalition's position was on the Lukoil Neftohim Burgas refinery case, he said the State could not afford to give 3 billion for a refinery in the current situation.

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On Bulgarian National Television's morning show, former finance minister Simeon Djankov said that the budget situation is quite tense and entering the euro area seems unlikely in 2025. "My forecast is that the deficit will be bigger than 3%. Right now, the deficit without the exotic ideas that are being looked at is somewhere between 5% and 6%. It needs to be cut in half to get into the Maastricht criteria," he added. Djankov described such progress as impossible, as all ideas currently involve increasing revenues, not cutting spending. "Spending is growing and we need to find revenues to match it, and that is very difficult because spending has increased sharply in the last 2-3 years," the former finance minister pointed out. There will be some attempts, but in the end the Government will say "we cannot do it this year", he added. Djankov said that Democratic Bulgaria is the only political force proposing meaningful ideas on the topic and expressed hope that those ideas will be voted in the National Assembly.

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24 Chasa has an article on Interior Ministry's financial situation. The daily writes that the Interior Ministry Secretary General's salary is set to increase with 40%, one of the biggest increases in the state administration. His salary will thus surpass that of MPs, which is BGN 7,080, and will be closer to that of ministers, BGN 9,204. New, much higher monthly salaries have been set for all Interior Ministry employees. The minimum basic salary for the post of "police officer" will be BGN 2,296, not BGN 1,466 as at present. The new regulation is expected to be adopted in March, but all these increases will come into force retroactively from January 1. In early 2025, politicians and financiers pushed for the increase to be delayed because of the large budget deficit. If military, police and teacher pay raises are postponed, it would save BGN 3 billion - an amount that approaches the deficit the State will make in the first three months of the year. Continue the Change Co-Chair Assen Vassilev proposed an alternative solution in which salaries would be raised but retired police officers, who number nearly 4,000, would be exempt from service. GERB leader Boyko Borissov opposed the idea.

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On Nova Television's morning show, sociologists Elena Darieva from Nasoca sociological agency and Dimitar Ganev from Trend Research Centre commented on the new regular Government and the 2025 State Budget. Ganev stressed that the budget situation could prevent the country's entry into the eurozone: "If we ask for a Convergence Report and it is not satisfactory, we will not be able to claim one again for another two years. So I guess the Cabinet is waiting to see what the picture is, and to try to meet the criteria," he explained.  "When talking about the State's money, it would be better to talk with the facts as they are. We hear a lot of different stories from all kinds of sources. It is clear that politicians have an interest in presenting things that way, but when we are talking about something so clear, we should have comprehensive information," Darieva added.

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On bTV's morning show, sociologist Andrey Raychev and journalist Petko Georgiev commented on Bulgaria's readiness to join the euro area. Bulgarians are much better off economically than in recent years and the country is ready to adopt the euro, both agreed. "The euro debate is geopolitical. It is important for the defenders of the euro because it is the last step in integration. We need to replace second class with first class given the turmoil that is coming," said Raychev. "Bulgaria is about five times stronger as an economy than it was in the most brilliant years of the socialist era. Bulgarian citizens have not lived better. The problem is that we have deepening inequality. There is a category of people who have not just lived better, but are getting worse. There are others who are living better. So there is a sense of injustice," Georgiev said.

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24 Chasa quotes Trend Research Centre data according to which only 6% of Bulgarians define their standard of living as high. Some 38% describe it as low or "rather low". Just over half (53%) describe their standard of living as average. The survey shows that only 8% of Bulgarians invest, compared to an average of 24% for the European Union. Nearly 25% save money, while 73% live only on their current income. 

VEZHEN

Mediapool.bg quotes National Security State Agency Chair Plamen Tonchev as saying that as of now, there is no evidence in favor of a hypothesis of sabotage of the Bulgarian ship Vezhen in Swedish waters, but the investigation of all versions continues. A few days ago, the Swedish prosecution service reported that it had opened a preliminary investigation on suspicion of "aggravated sabotage". Authorities in Stockholm have ordered the detention of the Bulgarian Maritime Fleet ship in the Baltic Sea on suspicion of damaging a submarine fibre-optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland. In addition to Latvia's severed cable, there are also severed cables of a country that is hostile to NATO, Tonchev said.

FLU EPIDEMIC

Telegraph reports that the number of flu tests done in the country has increased by 32.5% compared to last flu season. The newspaper cites data from Ramus Lab. A total of 6,227 flu tests have been done in the last two months, with 1,463 positive for influenza A and 593 positive for influenza B. The number in the last flu season was 4,469, with 1,032 positive tests for influenza A and 61 positive tests for influenza B. Almost 5,000 COVID-19 antigen tests have been done in the last two months. Of these, only 101 were positive. More than 7,000 people are bedridden for a week, statistics from the National Center for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases show. Measures against the flu have been declared in 13 regions and those where students will be studying remotely are also increasing.

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On bTV's morning show, virologist Radostina Alexandrova predicted a national flu epidemic. She stressed that January and February are traditionally the peak flu months in this part of the world. Alexandrova added that the influence of environmental factors on the spread of viruses is being actively studied. "For influenza, we know that it transmits better at low temperatures - around four degrees. And low humidity is good for it. But these are months when we spend much more of our time indoors. There is some seasonality, but the flu loves January-February," she said.

ECONOMY

The Bulgarian National Radio reported that the EU pilot project Carbon Neutral Thrace Economic Zone will be launched in Plovdiv. It is funded by the German Federal Environment Foundation. The aim of the project is to develop a successful long-term strategy for the future energy development of the Thrace Economic Zone with a focus on a new carbon neutral industrial park. The zero carbon zone will be built on a public-private partnership based on green bonds. The carbon-neutral industrial park is expected to reach peak development by 2045 with expected investments in high-tech and energy-intensive industries of up to EUR 4 billion and energy consumption of one gigawatt. This would represent one-sixth of the total energy consumption in Bulgaria today.

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Trud writes that Sofia’s Inspectorate reported a record volume of sanctions imposed in 2024 in all areas. Nearly three and a half times more money has been received in the account of Sofia Municipality in 2024 from sanctions imposed on cleaning companies - BGN 2.343 million compared to BGN 685,303 in 2023. The fines imposed by tickets on individuals and legal entities for violations throughout Sofia have also tripled. Administrative offences also saw a significant increase, with 5,455 tickets issued in 2024 compared to 2,707 in 2023. The most frequent violations for which the Inspectorate imposed sanctions were unregulated mixing and dumping of waste, as well as pollution from construction activities and unregulated open burning of waste.