Economy

Just a few weeks ago IME presented the main challenges to social protection faced by Bulgaria in the post-pandemic period. One of the key takeaways was that Bulgarian social policy is unfocused, ineffective and that it flat out fails to address poverty and inequality. While such issues are mainly solved through economic recovery, new jobs and wage growth, the role of social policy should be focused as much as possible on those most in need.

Imagine the owner of a candy store, whose window is broken by boys playing football. People run around the scene of the accident, pitty the owner and blame and rebuke the naughty. Nevertheless, there are some people among the crowd who say that a broken window also has its bright economic side. A broken window means work for the window maker. For the money he earns he can now buy bread, for example. That\'s how the baker has a job.

You have probably noticed that the world \"globalization\" evokes passions and even protests. \"The rich become richer and the poor are poorer!\" shout some of protesters. \"Globalization causes the loss of national culture and identity,\" is shouted by others. But is globalization really dangerous? Does it need to be slowed down or regulated?

June 2021 will go down in the history of improving the business environment in Slovakia. It has joined the countries that have introduced a system to reduce the costs of doing business, which stem from bureaucracy and other regulations. This will help Slovakia to recover from the crisis, increase business productivity, increase competitiveness and, ultimately, improve people\'s standard of living in general.

Estonia, Latvia, and starting from this year Poland (partly) are taxing profits earned by companies only at the dividend payout time. Such a model promises to raise both domestic and foreign investment, and it can help the economy recover from the crisis more quickly. The opponents of this taxation system in Lithuania argue that various benefits, which alleviate the burden on business and encourage investment where it is most needed, are already in place.

The Ministry of Finance has undertaken a systematic review of tax benefits. This job will not be easy but it makes sense to look at tax benefits in difficult situations. At first glance, it might seem that there are not many tax benefits so they can be examined and sorted in one sitting. Sadly, this is not the case. There are many different benefits which are advantageous to some citizen groups but annoy the others.

The European Commission has launched an initiative on the evaluation and revision of the general pharmaceutical legislation with an overall aim to ensure a future-proof and crisis-resistant regulatory system. The revision is intended to ensure access to affordable medicines, to foster innovation, including in areas of unmet medical need, to improve security of supply and address shortages, to promote technological development and to reduce red tape.

The justice of compensating for the quarantine is once again one of the main societal concerns. Previously made mistakes are leading to more and more flawed interpretations and force us to go back to the origins of the crisis. Did companies, which received \"quarantine relief\" from the government, have a right to breathe, move and change? In economic terms, it means to pay, invest, purchase, trade and transfer.

In March 2020, under the pressure of a growing pandemic, we voluntarily shut down the economy for the first time to protect the lives of fellow citizens. Over the next twelve months, when the economy and the people have already been locked in a lockdown, we have managed to completely devastate the services segment, we have managed to devastate children in online education and, worst of all, we have not prevented a high number of deaths from COVID.

Globalization is an integral part of everyday life. However, so called \"hyper-globalization\" challenges national interest in favour of deeper integration. Academics debate what values governments should prioritize and how they should interact with the international community. Countries can either sacrifice too much to find a place in the world economy or may focus wrongly on domestic public opinion alone.