Sun, Nov 22 2009

Bulgaria should sign IMF deal - Foreign Minister

Fri, May 29 2009 17:44 CET byAlex Bivol 2625 Views 2 Comments
Bulgaria should sign IMF deal - Foreign Minister

Photo: Nadezhda Chipeva

Bulgaria should sign a precautionary deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), not because it needed a bailout, but to boost security, Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said on May 29.

Kalfin was campaigning for European Parliament elections in Varna as the leader of the Socialist party MEP list. He is on leave as Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister overseeing economic policy for the duration of the campaign.

Socialist Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski have repeatedly rebuffed calls from business associations and analysts to seek an IMF deal, saying that Bulgaria did not need bailing out because its banks were sound and the economy would avoid the worse of the economic slowdown.

Flash estimates on economic growth for the first quarter of the year forecast the gross domestic product shrinking by 3.5 per cent.

According to Kalfin, who spoke to representatives of businesses from the Varna region, a precautionary agreement with the IMF would help maintain investor confidence in Bulgaria and prove that the country had access to outside financing.

Comments

Anonymous zorro Tue, Aug 04 2009 12:16 CET
Inappropriate comment?

Maybe the loan be stolen by an ex communist who never had the trust of money but only given the trust of power, maybe its best to stand on what you have.

Anonymous Alex McNeil Sat, May 30 2009 23:01 CET
Inappropriate comment?

Bulgaria needs a bail out! Simple as that. Bulgaria stop denying things. That's why Bulgaria is not as a successful EU State as others because the Bulgarian government is not true to its word, it fails to look after the needs of the Bulgarian citizens. Bulgaria lies constantly after the after. I have no trust in EU States that continually lie like Bulgaria.

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