2024-03-31 22:09:47
He confirmed that the accumulated inflation in our country for the last 3 years is about 30%, the chairman of the national statistical institute Atanas Atanasov said in an interview with BNR.
“There is no doubt about inflation being what it is, if anyone doubts it is due to ignorance of the matter – how it is measured. We apply the international methodologies defined by Eurostat. We have evidence, how we work and why such numbers are obtained.
I haven’t checked what the accumulated inflation is for the last 3 years, but I think it’s a little over 30%. At least in 2023, the annual rate was close to 17%, for these 3 years maybe around 30% has accumulated,” explained Prof. Atanasov. He added that inflation does not mean impoverishment, “the trend for more trips on people at home and abroad”, which did not mean impoverishment.
He explained the high inflation in Bulgaria with the lack of strong anti-inflationary measures:
“It’s no secret that we thought about inflation when we started to join the Eurozone. We have to think about it continuously. Last year and the year before last, there was quite high inflation, and this is playing quite badly for us now. If it was controlled then, now things would look a little better.”
For the moment, among the technical indicators for entry into the Eurozone, the only one we are not responding to is inflation. If it continues to fall in the future, we will probably cover this criterion for joining, Atanasov also said.
He is adamant that there is no way to manipulate data, as it was claimed that Greece did 15 years ago to join the Eurozone.
“In recent years, Eurostat has built control mechanisms, including through on-site visits to the countries. This fall, we will have a mission from Eurostat to check inflation and how we calculate it,” Assoc. Atanasov refuted the concerns.
He announced that last week there was a mission from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to NSI. On-the-spot checks were carried out in the native statistics for 3 days.
NSI is ready to join the OECD, we received an extremely high rating. Now by the end of April a report will be prepared and in June we are expected to be heard in Paris about the readiness to join the OECD. Questions will be asked and all sides of the statistics will be checked. And the assessment we receive will be a guarantee that we strictly fulfill not only European, but also international standards. I expect the NSI to be the first part of full membership after Bulgaria’s accession to the OECD, commented the chairman of the NSI in the program “Sunday 150”.