Economy Minister Expects Increasing Price Drop of Food Commodities in April-May

There is every indication for the price drop of food commodities in that April-May, caretaker Economy Minister Nikola Stoyanov said on bTV on Sunday. According to him, an issue is that there is not enough competition. He stressed that Bulgaria has the cheapest fuel in Europe at the moment.
Stoyanov pointed out that the prices of some foods have been falling since the beginning of March. He said oil prices have fallen by 8% and yoghurt prices by 7-9%. Producer prices dropped by 5.9% in February, and inflation was 2% lower in March, the minister added.
The 6.4% deficit proposed in the 2023 State Budget Bill by the caretaker government is just a framework, the economy minister explained. For the time being, the parties have spoken negatively about the instruments we offered them for a deficit of 3%, which is why we are now offering them a budget based on the policies voted by the 44th to the 48th National Assemblies – including the social expenditures and in reality without new policies, Stoyanov explained. In his words, from now on it is up to the MPs to decide what kind of budget they want.
Stoyanov added that there was a version of the caretaker government with a 3% deficit, but this was linked to raising some price rates and mostly to the return of some of the reduced price rates, as well as a one-time taxation of excess profits of companies. In a situation where costs are seriously increased, revenues have to come from somewhere to reduce the deficit, and that includes a rise in investment and a very large increase in production, Stoyanov stressed. He added that the budget envisages 1.8% growth of the economy, his personal forecast is for 2% growth at the end of 2023, which would happen through attracting investments and creating new jobs and industries.
The economy minister called the outflow of investors from Bulgaria „fake news“. Bulgarian National Bank figures show that there was an 85% growth in investments last year compared to 2021, he reasoned. And according to the Investment Agency, since the current caretaker government took over, from August last year, 17 investment certificates have been issued until the end of March. During the regular government before that – 10 certificates, so there has been a 70% increase in certificates issued, Stoyanov noted. According to him, the caretaker government has managed to compensate for the political instability so far.

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