Former Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski has described the current economic situation in Bulgaria as the most unfavorable for the past 23 years.

Oresharski, who was cited by Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) as nominee for the post of Prime Minister, commented Monday that Bulgaria could not achieve average European incomes by the end of the 4-year term in office of the next government, or even the one after it.

"This is an overambitious goal but we must use it as a marker and head towards the target step by step, without allowing backtracking" he stated in an interview for Nova TV.

"The next term in office will be very difficult. I am convinced, however, that if reasonable policies are launched in the beginning of the next government's term in office, we shall feel some improvement by the end of the period" Oresharski stated.

Bulgaria's former Finance Minister confirmed Sunday that he would accept a proposal of BSP to become Prime Minister, provided that the socialist party won the May 12 parliamentary elections.

Oresharski explained that the economic situation in Bulgaria was the worst for the past 23 years.

"It is true that in 1996-1997 we had a very dramatic local crisis – bankruptcies of banks, shock devaluation and depreciation of savings, but there were reserves at that point, the state owned 80-85% of the assets and we returned to financial stability very soon. Now the situation is just the opposite. We are in a situation in which the inertia of the economy will continue to drag us down unless urgent measures are taken to encourage entrepreneurship" he declared.

He insisted that Bulgaria's biggest problem was the lack of perspective, adding that urgent steps to boost the economic climate were necessary.

Oresharski argued that proposals for changing the corporate tax were unacceptable because it was of crucial importance for the country to encourage investment activity.

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