“Bulgaria has solid financial buffers and mechanisms and I am moderately optimistic about our exiting the crisis,” Plamen Dimitrov, leader of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) said for the Bulgarian National Radio.

He added that the CITUB’s forecasts of a level of unemployment of almost 10% in the country by the end of the year are corroborated by an analysis by the biggest Bulgarian bank, according to which unemployment will stand at 9%.  According to the bank an 8% drop in the GDP is to be expected, as opposed to the 3% set down in the budget. But even if this more negative scenario were to be played out, the reserves Bulgaria has will help it cope. The problems highlighted by Plamen Dimitrov are lack of flexibility in the availability of unemployment benefits, as well as the minimum amount of unemployment benefits – BGN 9 /EUR 4.6/ a day, which is what the unemployed in the tourist and restaurant industry are receiving.