Bulgaria: "The Eurozone in 5-6-7 Years at the Earliest - If At All"

"1.8% - this is the optimistic option for the growth of the economy. The Bulgarian National Bank, for example, predicts 0.4% growth. This is a positive realistic option. There are also options with a recession, which are even more frightening. What the government shows is not the scariest thing." This is what the economist Vasil Karaivanov, a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of the University of St. Kliment Ohridski, said in an interview with the National Radio.

"A new, record debt for Bulgaria is at stake, and the more important question is whether we will be able to borrow money, is there anywhere to borrow them from? Just a few months ago, Britain, the sixth largest economy in the world, could not borrow on the markets and the central bank had to do an extraordinary operation, which has not been done for decades", the economist explained.

"All kinds of scenarios are possible. We're still in the field of scenarios. The budget itself and the recovery plan. Right now we have a plan for a plan. Right now we're more in the field of discussing an option - one scary, another scarier, but the more important things keep running away from us," commented Vasil Karaivanov on the radio.

"The money for capital investments will depend on a package of laws that the National Assembly must adopt - for the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The first tranche has arrived, but the next tranches are hostage to the work of the National Assembly," he pointed out.

According to him, we are currently faced with the dilemma of whether to have a difficult year, and then to have "not so difficult years, to have relatively stable financial discipline", or "to allow the large deficit - either 6.4% or higher percentage...