Bulgaria

This paper aims to explore the history, structure, and economic consequences of the currency board in Bulgaria, which was introduced as an emergency measure to combat the late-nineties economic crisis, though has stayed in place ever since.

The hatred towards the “other” constitutes a leading political platform of one of the two ruling Bulgarian parties – United Patriots. On the other hand, populism is finding gaps in the economic policy through statements on the fight against monopolies and a number of legal actions to curb business.

The story of Georgy Markov does not end here. Freedom lovers in Bulgaria are raising funds to publish his collected writing. In a letter to a friend sent immediately after he moved to London, Markov, for some reason stated: “If we look at things historically, the victor in all events, even if I die, will be me!”

Bulgaria’s accession to the Eurozone became again a part of public discourse, after the minister of finance of the first Borisov government gave up on it in 2012. This will without a doubt bring opportunities as well as threats for the economy, and more often than not opinions are polarized.

In 2007-2008, a single rate for income and profit tax of 10% (or “flat rate”) was introduced in Bulgaria. It is now apparent that this was only the last stage of a long-lasting tax reform which has been going on without interruption under numerous and fundamentally different governments.

Similar to other CEE economies, privatization in Bulgaria did not start with the 1989–1990 transition period. The same applied to other market reforms, too, as the dominant view among policymakers at that time was that Bulgaria should undertake gradual changes to minimize social suffering.

The objective of the study \"The Seen and the Unseen Effects of the Entry of Modern Retail1 in Bulgaria: Facts Against Myths\" is to examine a number of popular claims that have been circulating in the media, and public debates. They often become grounds for political action and even legislative initiatives against modern retail formats.

Bulgaria is by far not the only country where regional differences are not only significant, but are also becoming greater. There are basically no countries which manage to simultaneously increase the wealth in their poorest and richest regions, while at the same time achieving a meaningful internal convergence.

In October 2016, IME together with FNF launched \"My taxes\" – a specialized online personal tax calculator, which can be accessed at the kolkodavam.bg website. The name “kolkodavam.bg” translates to “How much do I give?”. We are happy to announce that the website is already available in English.

According to a recent study conducted by the European Parliament, Bulgaria loses between 14 and 22 percent of its GDP every year due to corruption practices.The main question is therefore why there are no results in the fight against corruption in the country?