Bulgaria Ranks 38th in Economic Freedom, Between Costa Rica and Oman
In the 2026 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom, compiled by the Heritage Foundation, Bulgaria is placed 38th out of 176 countries, positioned between Costa Rica and Oman
Who Is Who: Bulgaria's Caretaker Economy Minister Assen Vassilev
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Assen Vassilev was announced as Bulgaria's caretaker Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism on Tuesday.
Vassilev is VP Strategy and Business Development and co-founder of Everbeard. He has over five years of experience in the travel industry as a founder and CEO of an online travel portal and a travel technology company.
He started his career at Monitor Group, where he worked on strategy, marketing, and SG&A optimization projects for a number of clients, including a Fortune 15 company in the energy industry, a large mining client in South Africa, and a telecom conglomerate in Russia.
In addition to business consulting, Vassilev has been involved in teaching economic policy at Sofia University as part of the Economic and Business Administration Department (the program is affiliated with the Microeconomics of Competitiveness Network headed by Prof. Michael Porter at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School). Vassilev has also engaged in government consulting, including travel policy consulting for the European Commission. He holds a BA in Economics from Harvard College
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