Today we are like in the movie Titanic – the ship is sinking, and the orchestra of loans, officials and unions is playing. Rumen Radev has a few months to stop the sinking by reducing the budget deficit and stopping the flow of these external loans into the unproductive state sector, which is stifling real production and creating an inflationary and debt spiral.
This was written on "Facebook" by Kiril Domuschiev.
Bulgaria is the champion in Europe in the scissors between the increase in the money supply in the economy (+20%) and the decline in production (-9%) – even stagflated Romania has more than twice the ratio! When loans inflate the public sector to these 660,000 people, countless state-owned companies, agencies and institutions, the entire economy distorts and begins to adjust to this bubble.
And it is huge – we have 3 TIMES more civil servants per capita than the US and we are well above the OECD average in terms of total public sector employment. And all this in the midst of a demographic crisis and an AI revolution!
Real business competes for employees, loans and investments with the state apparatus and structures – complete absurdity! The interest of workers and business is for consumption and production to increase together and naturally, which is why we came to the paradox that we, as employer organizations, prioritized protecting the interests of our workers, while the unions pushed to feed the officials (who mainly produce paperwork and corruption) and the zombie state-owned companies with external loans.
What exactly is the social function of Sofia District Heating, besides feeding the union membership? A student town without hot water for a whole week, and the poorest people in Europe from Vidin pay the heating (which does not exist) to Sofia residents! All zombies should go to concessions, and the state should focus only on truly important strategic projects, such as the Vertical Gas Corridor.
Business and consumers in Bulgaria are “sick” not only from the inflationary crisis, but also from an epidemic of stupid regulations. For example, according to the World Bank, we are in 151st place in terms of waiting to connect to the electricity grid – we are worse even than semi-collapsed countries like Haiti, Myanmar and Libya!
It takes 17 years to obtain permits to open a mine in Bulgaria (during a global raw materials crisis) – the Americans set foot on the moon in 16, and Musk is preparing to build a city there in 10!
I think I have said enough on the topic. I am sure that each of you has many more examples and analyses that I urge you to share openly – the cause is common!