PM Stanishev - Bulgaria Remains Very Stable amidst Global Financial Crisis / Legal Services in Bulgaria

PM Stanishev - Bulgaria Remains Very Stable amidst Global Financial Crisis

by Sofia News Agency www.novinite.com

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev declared Thursday the country remained very stable financially and economically despite the raging global financial crisis. In a lecture at the Youth Economic Forum at the University for National and World Economy in Sofia, Stanishev explained the government had a thorough plan for protecting Bulgaria of the negative effects of the global financial crisis. According to the Prime Minister, one of the most important buffers that the cabinet had set in the 2009 draft budget was the budget surplus of 3%. Stanishev pointed out that in the last few years Bulgaria's budget surplus had doubled largely thanks to the consistent policies of the government in this respect. The PM stressed the fact that the cabinet had doubled the country's financial reserves, which currently stood at BGN 28 B. Stanishev also predicted Bulgaria's GDP growth in for all of 2008 would be 6,5%. He added the country was still enjoying a high level of foreign direct investments - almost EUR 5 B by October 2008. Bulgaria's Prime Minister said the cabinet would make up for the expected decline of foreign investments in 2009 by allocating BGN 5,6 B for capital expenditures in the real economy. In his words, each Ministry was going to come up with an investment plan in order to utilize the public funds in the first six months of 2009.