site.btaEmployers Object to Continue the Change's Insistence on Adoption of 2023 State Budget Act

The nationally represented employer organizations did not support the Continue the Change party, which insists that a 2023 State Budget Act be adopted, and argued that it would be in the interest of businesses to extend the 2022 State Budget Act. The employer organizations are concerned that the parties, even those in favour of sticking to fiscal discipline and a budget deficit of 3% of GDP, would start upping the ante to please voters.

Meeting with the employer organizations on Friday, Continue the Change urged the caretaker cabinet to propose a new budget. The party's co-leader Assen Vassilev said that without a new budget, Bulgaria would stand a zero chance of joining the euro area in 2024, adding that besides Continue the Change, GERB-UDF and Democratic Bulgaria were also in favour of sticking to a 3% budget deficit. Co-leader Kiril Petkov said the parties could easily adopt a budget with a 3% deficit and meet the expectations of the business community.

An extension of the 2022 State Budget Act would be inadequate to the current economic conditions, which have changed dramatically, Vassilev stressed at the meeting which lasted over an hour.

Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association Chairman Vassil Velev said this year was likely to end with a lower deficit because investments did not materialize.

Maria Mincheva of the Bulgarian Industrial Association said the accumulated inflationary money did not ensure stability. The political crisis is a much greater cause for concern than the extension for a few months of the 2022 budget, which was revised three times in a year.

 Vasil Todorov of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry commented that he did not see efforts to form a regular cabinet and quick elections were likely to yield the same results.

Union for Private Economic Enterprise Board Chair Vaska Baklarova asked why nothing was being said about the formation of a regular government. "We would back something that made more sense," she said, adding that it is not normal to go without a regular government for two years.