27.03.2014

In the past the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) worked only with big clients, but now the strategy is completely different and the institution is focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, Minister of Finance Petar Chobanov stated at the meeting with companies from Plovdiv region at which the new products of BDB have been presented. He added that the aim of the Bank was not to be competitive to the other market players, but to find the niches, the weaknesses in order to facilitate the access of businesses to financing. Minister Chobanov commented that the new starting companies were an example thereof, having no credit history and no chance for financing. According to him data on the crediting of the economy since the beginning of the year have been very encouraging; the crediting of companies has grown and the BDB's active policy has contributed therefor. The President of the Managing Board and CEO of the Bank Mr Dimo Spasov added that for the lifetime of the institution there was no such large scale campaign to meet the businesses on the field in order to present the new products and to hear the opinion of the companies and the views of the people.

At the briefing after the meeting the Finance Minister stated that the pension allowances would be planned and provided for in the next year budget and added that the Government was implementing a consistent social policy and an example thereof was the reinstated Swiss rule for pension indexation. Petar Chobanov also commented on the planned and provided for in this year budget issue of foreign debt and the Government's debt policy. He reminded that there were strictly set limits on the volume of new debt that could be issued this year and how it was to be spent. The new government debt to be issued this year will be used to pay maturing in 2014 old liabilities to the amount of around BGN 1.4 billion and around BGN 1.7 billion to pay the maturing in January 2015 USD denominated Global Bond, while with BGN 1.4 billion the 2014 budget deficit will be financed. The time for launching the new issue of foreign debt is not dependent on the elections for European parliament but on the situation on the international markets, Chobanov further specified.

The Finance Minister commented also on the his estimates of budget revenues and specified that for the first quarter the excise duties' revenues would be by around BGN 50 million more. As regards tax revenues the information is not yet complete as the most strong in revenues' terms days by the end of March are still to come. "We expect good results there also and additional revenues", he added. According to him comparison between revenues for the first half of this year and of the past year would not be correct as the situation is different. "We have months in the previous year when the amount of VAT refunded is very small and when this is the case the impression has been for artificially higher revenues that in fact have not been available", he clarified. "The European elections will cost around BGN 22 million", Minister of Finance Petar Chobanov stated in response to a question raised by journalists and specified that the Central Election Commission was preparing the estimates and after their approval that would be provided for in the budget for the vote.

Minister Chobanov said that different scenarios were being drafted as to the impact that possible sanctions against Russia could have on our economy and added that such restrictions would affect the European economy as a whole and at a moment when it had started to sustainably grow.