Author: Petar Ganev
/ 2022-01-14
According to weekly NSI data on deaths in Bulgaria, nearly 148,000 people have died in 2021. This data is not yet final and will probably undergo a slight upward correction, but nevertheless gives a very good idea of what happened last year. The cause of the high mortality in the country is due to the two waves of excess mortality – mainly March-April and October-November, which follow the pandemic waves. With “regular” mortality rates below 110 thousand per year (in the period of 2009 – 2019) we can conclude that the excessive mortality in 2021 reaches nearly 40 thousand people.
Author: IME
/ 2022-01-17
Regardless of the numerous attempts to tackle gold-plating, it remains one of the main factors disrupting the EU internal market. Recently the importance of tackling gold-plating was once again reinstated with the EU’s ambition to abolish unjust barriers to the single market. Reflecting on said ambition, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, in cooperation with several EU think-tanks, presents its study “Gold-plating: how to identify and avoid”. It analyses the status quo of gold-plating and possible means of tackling it to achieve EU’s goals towards SMEs and ensuring a flourishing and competitive internal market.
Author: IME
/ 2022-01-07
The term “wage” and its size are very important in national discussions about labor markets, taxes and insurance payments, but also as a part of international comparisons for investors deciding to build a factory or place investments in a specific country. A lot of confusion has been created by the introduction of gross wage, with arbitrary distinction between “employee paid” and “employer paid” taxes and contributions. However, this is balanced out by introduction of total wage cost in international statistics.
Author: Petar Ganev
/ 2021-09-08
At the end of May, the IME wrote that it was high time for a ramp-up of vaccine efforts in Bulgaria. By this, we meant that the vaccination process should be made the first and foremost governmental priority, and that as many tools as possible should be sought and employed to speed up the pace. The reason was obvious. The country was substantially far behind achieving the set target – vaccinating 70% of the adult population by the end of August. The aforementioned ramp-up of efforts did not follow, with the country gradually plateauing at around 12-13 thousand vaccine doses delivered per day. The results of this today are evident. The end of August has been met with a new wave of virus transmission, with barely 1.2 million Bulgarian adults having completed their vaccination cycle, while the target was for more than 4 million to have done so by this date.
