From Mr. Ivan Iskrov, Governor, Bulgarian National Bank
December 23, 2011, Financial Times
Sir, In your report “Eurozone ready to contribute €150bn to IMF” (December 19), while discussing the non-eurozone countries’ share in the €200bn contribution to the International Monetary Fund, as targeted at the latest European Council summit, you make the following claim: “Other EU governments, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, have been exempted because they are receiving IMF support, or have not yet made good on past commitments to the fund.”
As long as Bulgaria is concerned, this statement is wrong. Bulgaria is not receiving any IMF support; nor is Bulgaria under any IMF support program. Neither does it have any outstanding unfulfilled commitments to the IMF.
I believe your readers deserve to continue their reliance on the FT as a trustworthy and comprehensive source of information, rather than come across such factual errors on hot issues like this one. Especially in today’s challenging times, your knowledgeable audience will find it quite revealing to learn how a small open economy of a member state, operating a euro-based currency board, has weathered the crisis so well, remaining fiscally disciplined, with a well-capitalized and liquid banking sector that never needed any state bail-out or support, and with rising exports as a result of competitive gains following the successful internal adjustments and restructuring of the economy.
The IMF would have been relieved if there had been more countries like Bulgaria in the European Union.
