Only one in 20 investors in Bulgaria regards data in annual financial reports as accurate and reliable and one in three find reports incomprehensible and incomplete. These are the findings of a survey carried out by Dnevnik daily and odit.info, the Bulgarian website that focuses on accounting matters.

The survey draws on the answers of 1400 people and will be showcased at an October 10 roundtable titled “The Role of Financial Reports for Bulgarian Stock Market Development”. The forum will pool investors and accountants, as well as representatives of regulators directly involved with financial accountability issues.

More than 30 per cent of respondents answered negatively to the question “Do you always read audit reports and trust them?” About 33 per cent answered “Rather not.”

Pessimism is not shared by accountants. Two in five accountants trust report findings.

Follow-up questions reveal that investors’ distrust draws on their high reliance on reported information. One in two investors admit they could not do their job without reading financial reports. A quarter of all respondents answer they likely could not.

One in five accountants believe investors can handle their duties without reading financial reports.