2024-09-21 22:56:21
“Last year I surveyed 157 countries and Bulgaria was quite miserable. It is ranked 117th. The situation is worst in Argentina, Venezuela and Lebanon. The best are China, Malta, Switzerland, Japan and Thailand. ‘The misery index according to Hanke’ takes the unemployment rate and I give it double weight. The other factor of misery is inflation, so we add that to double unemployment. We also add the interest rate on bank loans,” explained Steve Hanke to Nova TV. He is called the “father” of the Bulgarian Currency Board, he was awarded eight honorary doctorate degrees, three of them in Bulgaria.
“Looking at the current numbers for this year, Bulgaria’s position will improve” According to him, the main reason for this behavior is the sharp drop in inflation. “I think that Bulgaria will rank better than in 2023,” the professor reported.
According to him, Bulgaria’s entry into the Eurozone would be a complete disaster. “One of the reasons is the division between politicians and elites who insist on the Eurozone, and on the other hand the population of Bulgaria. Public opinion wants us to keep the leva and the currency board, because it works, it would be stupid to change it,” he added.
“There is a distrust of politicians and a deep cynicism towards politics. Only about 30% of eligible voters are expected to vote in the next election. They are voting for people they don’t know – no one has really voted for them. They are demanding that the levy be removed and take the euro,” the professor thinks.
“There is no use for the euro, because with the system of the Currency Board, which as you know I designed and helped to create in 1997, the lev is really a clone of the euro. Why formally be trapped in the eurozone and give up the formalities that do you have? The lev is the same as the euro”