FACTBOX: Economic plans of Bulgaria's main political parties
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria held a parliamentary election Sunday.
All key parties hope to maintain macroeconomic stability by preserving the currency board regime and the 1.95583 lev per euro peg, introduced after a financial meltdown in the mid-1990s.
Here are the key points of their economic programmes:
GERB
- revise the 2009 budget to cut spending and start immediate talks with the International Monetary Fund for an aid package
- aim for balanced budgets
- cut social insurance payments by up to 5 percentage points from 33.6 percent
- work toward an accelerated entry to ERM-2 (european rate mechanism)
- freeze projects for which no financing has been secured
- invest in education
BULGARIAN SOCIALIST PARTY (BSP)
- sees no need for IMF aid for now
- maintain budget surpluses
- raise average monthly pay to 485 euros from about 300 now
- keep unemployment below 7.5 pct, create 100,000 new jobs
- push ahead with major infrastructure projects
- keep inflation down by freezing prices of state-regulated monopolies
- aim for ERM-2 entry in 2010
MOVEMENT FOR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS (MRF)
- cut spending, avoid budget deficits
- improve tax collection and tighten control of spending
- improve EU aid absorption
- keep current tax levels
- cut social security payments once the crisis is over
- allow for wage raises in line with productivity gains
- boost infrastructure projects to keep unemployment low
BLUE COALITION:
- cut spending to 38 percent of GDP from 40 percent now
- cut value added tax and social insurance contributions
- adopt the euro by 2013
- invest in construction of highways
- freeze the Belene nuclear power plant project, the South Stream gas pipeline and the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline
NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR STABILITY AND PROGRESS (NMSP)
- seek a precautionary agreement with the IMF
- aim for a quick ERM-2 entry and eurozone entry by 2013
- cut spending to 35 percent of GDP
- cut social security payments by 5 percentage points
- cut VAT to 18 percent from 20 once the crisis is over
(Compiled by Tsvetelia Ilieva and Irina Ivanova)
