This budget is more realistic and is based on a solid foundation. It could have been a little bolder, with more reforms, but the situation is as it is, he said in "Face to Face" on bTV, the Chairman of the Management Board of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, Vasil Vassilev, about the draft budget for 2026 presented earlier today by Galab Donev with a set deficit of 5.7%., quoted by novini.bg.
What was announced was expected. There is a removal of the "skeletons" from the accounts and the announcement of more realistic figures. The reduction in expenses could have been a little more ambitious, but there is clearly an effort not to reduce payments, Velev said.
There is no increase in tax rates, which was announced before, and has now been confirmed. The deficit of 5.7% is impressive, we have never had such a deficit. With a growing economy, we must have balanced budgets, and for several years we have been left on a sled that is leading us to the abyss. Now an attempt is being made to turn the corner – this year more smoothly, and next year more sharply, in order to get past the gap. The new budget is also an attempt to put an end to indiscriminate borrowing. The debt that will be taken now is smaller than the previous one, commented the head of the AIKB.
According to him, in the last few years the deficit has been maintained at a low level through budget tricks.
We hope to end these practices, emphasized Vasil Velev.
In Bulgaria, we have had a decline in industrial production for 3 years. Now we are at the level of 2021. This is a consequence not of local policies, but of policies at the European level, such as the Green Deal, Velev also said.