Every Bulgarian, it is sometimes said, is an expert in matters of finance and knows how to fix the economy. The problem is, Bulgarians will always argue and never agree on what this fix should be.

That said, it was surprising and frustrating to see the issue of the country’s fiscal reserve and what to do with it shuffled out of public scrutiny.

The brief summary of it all is that in October Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov said that the fiscal reserve, now about eight billion leva, was languishing at the Bulgarian National Bank, where it earned the Government little revenue or even cost money when the weekly interest rate fell below zero.

His suggestion was to deposit some of the funds with commercial banks, which would have re-financed the banking system and would increase Budget revenue. Dyankov’s plan was summarily dissed and dismissed, proving that the fears of another banking crisis like the one in 1996, when the cabinet of the time exhausted all its currency reserves in its failed attempt to save the banking system, were still very much alive. Prime Minister Boiko Borissov promptly intervened to kill the idea.

Opposition criticism lost all of its bite once it emerged that the previous government had planned to do and actually had done what Dyankov suggested – a "minor exception" in what was otherwise a preemptive plan should Bulgarian banks need bailing out. Borissov once again promptly intervened, warning that anyone raising the issue anew would feel his wrath.

It was surprising then, to say the least, that the Financial Times published a story on November 15, which quoted Dyankov saying that one billion leva would be put in short-term deposits with banks and that "if required, more liquidity could be made available".

A day later, the Finance Ministry denied the report, saying that it used an "outdated quote" from Dyankov. The minister himself said that the issue was "closed".

So why should anyone care?

Because if Dyankov had indeed said the things that the Financial Times reported, and it was not a case of mis-communication caused by static on the phone line during the interview (which according to media reports in Bulgaria happened on November 10, long after Borissov imposed his media moratorium on the issue), then the Finance Minister fell into a familiar trap. Other officials, both in Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries, have failed in the past to keep their wits and gave in to the heady feeling of being interviewed by the big-name international media, letting their brains play catch up to their mouths.

One would think that Dyankov, with his World Bank background, was better than that. It would be a good thing for Dyankov to back up his talk of transparency by going public with what he said in his interview. When proof of opposite is absent, doubts will always linger.