Finance Minister Vassilev: 2023 State budget does not tighten belts

The 2023 State Budget 'does not tighten the belts' – there is a 12% increase in pensions, an increase of almost all kinds of public social expenditure indexed to the inflation rate, an increase in doctors' and teachers' salaries, and record levels of investments, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev told the Bulgarian National Radio on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Parliament approved the 2023 State Budget at first reading. The draft budget was supported by GERB-UDF, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. BSP for Bulgaria, Vazrazhdane and There Is Such a People voted against.

Vassilev described the 2023 state budget as a well-balanced plan and pointed out that in no way it is a budget that reduces or cuts spending dramatically.

Commenting on the trade unions' demands for wage increases in the public sector, Vassilev said that the Finance Ministry sets the macro framework of the budget and, as long as it does not increase spending, everything is possible, but it is a matter of judgment whether pay increase is the best policy to pursue.

Answering a question about potential salary increase for Interior Ministry employees, Vassilev argued that the Interior Ministry received a 20% increase as of July 1, 2022, and since then the inflation has been less than 10%. It is not very wise to make a new increase of wages in the system of the Interior Ministry without reforming it and dismissing the retired employees, who are over 5,000.