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Bulgaria's government has backtracked on plans to increase social contributions payments by 3 percentage points as of next year to 31.5%, the finance minister announced on Friday.
"The increase in social contributions payments for retirement as of the beginning of 2011 will be lower than 3 percentage points," Minister Simeon Djankov told journalists in parliament.
"We will propose a lower hike so that the burden is carried not only by the employers, but by the employees as well," he added, but declined to cite concrete figures.
In his words the increase in the social security burden risks to foster the grey economy.
The news was confirmed by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who said social contributions payments for retirement will be increase by 1.5 or 2 percentage points.
"What we need is the financial experts' assurance that this will bring enough revenues to the budget," Borisov told the morning broadcast of bTV private channel. "A working group is working on the issue and we will announce our final decision by Monday."
A day earlier a mass rally of 10 000 Bulgarian industrial workers in Sofia extracted concessions from the government on its controversial retirement reform plans.
The Bulgarian labor union KNSB (Confederation of Independent Bulgarian Syndicates) organized the protest in opposition to several social reform measures planned by the government of the center-right GERB party.
These included increasing the retirement age and the minimum number of years of service required for pension.
Earlier this week Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said the government decided to up payments for social security for retirement by 3 percentage points in a bid to relieve the country's strained health care system.
The move was motivated by the fact that funds for healtcare, which are not sufficient anyway, are apparently being used to supply the state retirement pension system.
Business and employer associations slammed the increase and warned the move will hinder the country's fragile economic recovery.?
Bulgaria's seasonally adjusted gross domestic product marked an increase of 0.5% in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year thanks to a rise in exports, pulling the country out of recession.
This was the first time that Bulgaria's GDP expanded since the recession set in at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009.
Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest country, faced its first recession in 12 years after a three-year lending boom stalled and foreign investment dried up.
The government has pledged to stick to a tight fiscal policy and keep the deficit below 3 % by the end of this year.
The recovery of the Bulgarian economy, which operates in a currency board regime, is lagging behind that of other Eastern European countries.
Analysts from local think-tanks have forecast that Bulgaria's economy is likely to continue to contract in the second half of this year and may fail to return to growth earlier than next year.
The European Commission said last month that Bulgaria's economy is likely to start to recover towards the end of 2010 under the impact of the international cycle.
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