Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov is easy to make fun of. His quotes would be funny, because so often they verge on the ludicrous, if it were not for his blatant disregard of facts. In one of his latest media appearances, coming in one of the few television shows dedicated to covering exclusively business, no less, he once again came up with several statements that are easily disproved by the official statistics.
“Exports are showing impressive growth, rising more or less double as fast as imports,” he said. A quick look at the website of Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), which publishes a slew of macroeconomic statistics every month, shows otherwise. At best, Dimitrov might have been close to the truth in January, when monthly imports grew by 18.7 per cent, compared with exports surging up by 28.4 per cent. Since then, the figures have evened out and for the first five months of the year: BNB figures show an increase of 26.1 per cent in exports, compared with 25.6 per cent for imports.
“For the past two years, our policies have aimed to insure that incomes grow double as fast as inflation,” he said. Conveniently picked – over the 24 months ending in May, average household income grew to 689.15 leva, up 35.8 per cent, while inflation for the same period was 20 per cent. For the last year, with the global credit crunch and rising oil prices, the difference is much smaller – 17.3 per cent household income growth versus 15.3 per cent inflation. Since the current Cabinet of Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev took office in August 2005 through end-May 2008, household income has grown by 41.9 per cent, while cumulative inflation was 31.1 per cent. Not something to write home about.
“I am optimistic about Bulgaria’s outlook because the current crisis has now gone on for a year and has had no serious impact on Bulgaria,” he said. Now, even though the minister does not speak or read English, according to his CV posted on the ministry’s website, I still find it hard to believe that the most recent developments around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns or IndyMac have bypassed him entirely. Or the fact that foreign direct investment in Bulgaria has shrunk by 15 per cent in January-May and covers only 55.7 per cent of the current account gap in that period, compared with 78.1 per cent in the first five months of 2007.
These are facts, minister. Disregarding them makes you either a fool or a liar.
