On Wednesday the regular mission of the International Monetary Fund to Bulgaria began. It is to assess the current state of the Bulgarian economy. It seems that Bulgarian authorities will pleasantly surprise the international financial experts because not only Prime Minister Boyko Borissov but even his political opponents as well as independent experts say the Bulgarian economy has not been in such a good shape for a long time.

The team of experts from Washington headed by Reza Baqir comes in the right moment - just after the successful completion of bank stress tests. Many experts were worried about the results, keeping in mind the case with the supposedly booming Corporate Commercial Bank that suddenly went bankrupt two years ago. However, recent checks showed that the country's banks are stable, healthy and even thrive despite near-zero interest rates. Some 460 million euros of revenues for seven months is a very good achievement for financial institutions. This fact can only impress experts of the fund, who are particularly sensitive on the topic of Bulgarian finances, as they have not forgotten how in the middle of 90s the fund had to take extraordinary and urgent measures to rescue the country’s financial system that collapsed after unprecedented and massive bank crash. Now everything is fine and this is not only true in the private financial sector. The situation in the sphere of public finances also seems very good and revenues to the state have been steadily growing. This is news that the IMF experts will surely be glad to hear.

Positive data are complemented by a number of facts and figures which used to seem virtually utopian some time ago. Bulgaria has achieved a remarkable by European standards GDP growth of 3 percent and a record low unemployment level of around 7%. Bulgarian authorities will not fail to point out the giant for this country fiscal reserve of over 6 billion euros, as well as the unprecedented boom of tourism.

At the backdrop of this beautiful economic picture there are problems like deflation and foreign debt that keeps growing. However, deflation is not so severe and the debt remains far away from levels in other EU countries that do not seem to bother anyone.

One has the impression that the economic situation in Bulgaria is idyllic and that everything goes perfectly well. The major problem, however, both in economic and social terms remains poverty. Bulgaria is the poorest country in Europe with the poorest citizens. This is not a problem that can be solved for a year or two, or even for a decade or two, and IMF experts know that better than anyone else. That is why the important thing for the fund is seeing the country is going on the long but right way of development, which is what the current case is.

English: Alexander Markov