Bulgaria Sets Pace For Economic Recovery

Floor Speech

* Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, as chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Bulgaria, I would like to commend Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the country of Bulgaria for their fiscal soundness.

* According to a January 12, 2010 article in The Wall Street Journal, countries around the world, including the United States, could learn from the Bulgarians as proponents of a free market democracy. Bulgaria entered the European Union (EU) in 2007 and succeeded in producing the smallest budget deficit among the 27 member nations last year. (They are not yet part of the euro zone, which currently consists of 16 EU nations.) As a dynamic member of NATO, Bulgaria is a valued partner of America.

* Bulgaria is on track to be the only EU nation to balance its 2010 budget. The country was able to manage its budget by instituting key fiscal strategies. The most basic example was the capital city's ability to freeze wages and pensions for those in the government, re-evaluate costly state investment projects, and slash government spending by 15 percent. Such efforts resulted in a ``full-year deficit of less than 500 million lev ($370 million), or 0.8 percent of gross domestic product. The closest country to do so was Germany with 3.4 percent.

* Given the international attention to Bulgaria's fiscal strategy, European leaders will now understand Bulgaria has arrived on the world stage. Continuing economic progress could help Bulgaria leapfrog other euro desiring countries, like Romania and Hungary who had to be given bailouts from the International Monetary Fund, IMF, due to the downturn, where as Bulgaria has not and does not intend to ask the IMF for assistance. Even Poland, who has been rethinking their entering the euro currency nations club, may be outpaced by Bulgaria as a currency member nation.

* Bulgaria's decision to tackle the difficult issue of spending and budget deficits, which plagued their country in the past, is now a model for other Baltic states where deficits are rising. Further evidence of their success is the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's has upgraded Bulgaria's status as stable.

* I commend Prime Minister Borisov and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov for their visionary work elevating Bulgaria as a major player in the EU and world. Entry into the euro should be given serious consideration by the EU as a result of these major achievements.

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