Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev stated Thursday that for the first time in its development Bulgaria was entering a real capitalist crisis since 1989, unlike the one in 1997, which was a crisis of the transition period, local press reported.
During the forum "Together against the Crisis," the prime minister announced he had ordered all ministries to prepare anti-crisis plans, which would be made public, and were expected to take effect in the first half of 2009.
"The financial crisis is creating a situation which is hard to predict but Bulgaria is relatively less affected than the European Union. In the recent weeks, however, the prognoses for our main partner, the EU, have worsened," Stanishev said.
He also pointed out the Bulgarian banking institutions had no liquidity problems, and no state intervention was required even though the government had the capacity to support them if needed.
Stanishev reminded that the government's guarantee of all bank deposits of up to 100,000 leva (about 64,500 U.S. dollars) had provided financial security for 99 percent of all Bulgarians with money in a bank.
He expressed the willingness of the Bulgarian government to work together with the other EU states in order to overcome the effects of the crisis as no individual economy could cope with them on its own.
He said the currency board arrangement will be preserved, and the government has considerable currency reserves, which amounted to 28 billion leva (about 18.67 billion U.S. dollars) as of October. Changes have already been made in the national budget for2009. A considerable increase of capital expenses has been envisaged.
Thursday's forum on the financial crisis was organized by the Council of Ministers, and was also attended by Economy Minister Peter Dimitrov, Labor Minister Emilia Maslarova, and Deputy PM Meglena Plugchieva monitoring the absorption of EU funds.
Source:Xinhua
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