Atanas Pekanov: The Council for Economic Analysis is starting a deep discussion about our economic problems

At the beginning of 2023, a Council for Economic Analysis was established by Decree of the Council of Ministers, which has an advisory nature. The Chairman of the Council is the Deputy Prime Minister for the Management of European Funds, Atanas Pekanov, and its members include economists from the academic community, including from prestigious international universities. Secretary General of the Council will be Prof. Plamen Nenov from BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, Norway. This was announced by the press service of the Council of Ministers.

This reform lays the foundations for a process of sustainable provision of the Bulgarian government and institutions with in-depth academic economic expertise, which will be a starting point for better economic decisions, explained Deputy Prime Minister Pekanov.

"We need reforms and improvements in the structure of our economy. We need a more balanced distribution of economic activity, well-thought-out and targeted efforts in the social sphere, measures to combat the demographic crisis, policies to attract more investments. These are recommendations from both the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and a number of other organizations over the years," he commented.

The Council will assess the long-term challenges facing the Bulgarian economy and make proposals for the most appropriate policies to overcome them. He will have the opportunity to prepare recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of economic policies in response to current challenges.

The creation of the Council is set as a reform foreseen in the National Plan for Recovery and Sustainability of the Republic of Bulgaria. With the institutionalization of the Council, the first part of this reform has been completed.

"We are living in times of serious misinformation and we must make efforts so that the Bulgarian society is not deceived by fake news and information of dubious quality, especially when it comes to key issues in the economic sphere. We need more expertise, more analysis, more well-prepared opinions from scientists of international repute. The purpose of the Council is to improve the discussions on economic policies and on the important decisions and reforms before us - among the institutions, but also among the society as a whole," added Pekanov.

On March 15, 2023, the first meeting of the Council was held, at which the Annual Work Program for 2023 was approved and the first economic study dedicated to the topic of regional inequalities and economic imbalances between regions in Bulgaria was presented and discussed. The conclusions and results of the research will be presented in the framework of a public event, which will be held on April 24 at 1 p.m. in the Granite Hall of the Council of Ministers, with the participation of representatives of the administration and the media.

All economic studies of the Council will be published on a specially created website - www.cea.egov.bg, where there is also complete information about the scientists participating in the Council. The first scientific conference of the Council will be held in June, and more information about it can be found here.