[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 13, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E25]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                BULGARIA SETS PACE FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 13, 2010

  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.

                          ____________________