How strong is the government right now? I think we are in a fairly comfortable position, mostly by virtue of the economic track record that we've established in the past few years. The growth rate has been between 4% and 5% for several years in a row. We have a low single-digit inflation rate this year, with the public debt to GDP ratio substantially down in two years from 75% to 50%. We've had a stream of credit rating upgrades - eight of them in two years. This goes hand in hand with lower unemployment, which has gone from 19% to 14% in two years. And we've also put the current account deficit in control.
The budget deficit is one of the lowest in Europe and the IMF programme is performing very well. The expectation that has yet to materialize is a pick-up in foreign direct investment. That is down, but we believe there will be serious pick-up next year.
Could the government be selling its case better? That may very well be the case. Ordinary Bulgarians in the street don't care much about low inflation or a low budget deficit. They rather want more money in their hand now.