These are some of the top stories in Bulgarian newspapers on January 14 2009. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Dnevnik daily leads with a story on the Cabinet's lavish spending at the end of 2008, authorising the spending of four billion leva in the period of November 24-December 31. Opposition party Union of Democratic Forces leader Martin Dimitrov accused the Government of the unaccounted spending of 1.5 billion leva, while the Finance Ministry said that it was a standard practice for Bulgarian cabinets to postpone full payment of the funds allocated to state institutions until the end of the year and accused Dimitrov of mis-representing the figures, the daily reported.

- The National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), one of the junior partners in the ruling coalition, wants to amend the constitution, allowing the recall of MPs that leave or are excluded from the party on whose lists they were elected to Parliament, Monitor daily reported. NMSP suffered the most from defections in the current legislature, with more than 20 MPs leaving the party's parliamentary group over disagreements with leader Simeon Saxe-Coburg.

- Former Socialist prime minister Zhan Videnov quit his membership in the party, Standart daily reported. The newspaper quoted the former PM as saying that the majority of Socialist party members, himself included, were disappointed with the Cabinet of Socialist PM Sergei Stanishev. Videnov was at the helm of the Socialist government that presided over Bulgaria's economic collapse in 1996/97 and was toppled by street protests.

Social

- Starting with January 15, Bulgarian taxpayers will be able to fill in their income tax declarations online on the National Revenue Agency website (www.nap.bg), Standart daily reported. The tax forms, however, would not be submitted online, instead they had to be printed out, each copy coming with its own unique barcode, which can then be submitted to the NRA.

Economy

- Inflation was no longer one of the big problems of Bulgaria's economy - deflation was, Dnevnik daily reported after the consumer price index (CPI) in the country shrunk for a second straight month in December. The decrease contributed to a final annual inflation figure of 7.8 per cent in 2008, down from 12.5 per cent a year earlier.

- Interest rates on consumer loans, denominated in both euro and leva, jumped in December, Dnevnik daily said. Interest rates at end-November were in the 12-14 per cent range, but after eight banks raised the rates, they wre now in the 13.1-16.7 per cent bracket, the daily reported.