finance

Bulgaria is about to enter the excessive deficit procedure for the second time in its recent history. At present, all expectations are focused on the government, which must propose a regular budget for 2026 and give a clear signal that it is reversing the trajectory of public finances.

The study commissioned by the Civil Development Forum (FOR) was conducted by Opinia24 between 17 and 21 March 2025 on a sample of 1,000 respondents. The sample was representative of the adult population of Poland in terms of gender, age, education and place of residence (rural areas and cities of different sizes), as well as voting preferences expressed in the 15 October 2023 election. 

The idea of capping interest rates on non-bank consumer loans has returned to the Czech political agenda. The intention is unimpeachable: protect financially vulnerable people from predatory lenders and prevent debt spirals. Nobody serious disputes that goal. However, will the rate cap actually solve the problem it claims to address?

Ukraine\'s economy experienced a temporary bump in August 2025, with real GDP growth accelerating to an estimated 8% year-over-year after a slight decline in July, according to the latest Monthly Economic Monitoring report from the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.

The illusory truth effect is a psychological phenomenon describing the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure. One example I can think of in Slovakia is the statement about \"cherry-picking\" in the hospital sector. Lower-tier hospitals cherry-pick the easy and profitable patients and send the rest to the larger state hospitals, which then make economic losses on them.

Price inflation is not inevitable. One of the most common explanations for price growth is identifying it with capitalism. The argument is that inflation is unavoidable as the economy grows. It is thought that for businesses to have an incentive to invest and wages to grow, the prices of goods and services should rise in the first place.

While the state does need to find new revenues, there will not be any substantive debate on taxation over the next four months, new Finance Minister Annely Akkermann (Reform) says.

The talks over the National Recovery Plan were to begin in February. Since then, the European Commission set particular conditions on which the assets would be transferred to Poland, mainly linked with the improvement of the deteriorating situation regarding rule of law in the country.

The period of instability in 2021 could easily be redefined as stretching up to 2022, given that the cabinet of Kiril Petkov lasted twice as short as that of Plamen Oresharski. The most recent elections show that the political crisis in Bulgaria is far from over.

In August 2022, the production recovery in Ukraine continued, but the dynamics of the indicators of the economic conditions indicate a possible slowing down of the recovery trend in 6 months perspective. This is indicated by several important factors.