BULGARIAN GOVT VOWS NOT TO RISE TAXES WHILE IN POWER

Bulgaria's centrist-right GERB government will not raise taxes until its term ends in 2013, the country's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov stated Thursday.

In in interview for the Bulgarian National Television, Djankov also revealed he has reached a consensus with Interior Minister and fellow-Deputy PM Tsvetan Tsvetanov concerning the "new state budget balance" issue.

Recently, the Finance Minister stated that the Bulgarian government has been giving too much money for the security sector, and too little for science, education and culture, promising that was bound to change in 2012.

Djankov's remark triggered a negative reaction on behalf of Tsvetanov, who said that the Finance Minister "is not the person who will say how the budget of the nation will be distributed."

Commenting on the international financial situation, the Minister reiterated his belief that decreasing deficits is the most crucial step to be undertaken.

"Currently, only short-term solutions are being sought, focused on financing growingdeficits - in Greece, in Portugal, in large parts of Europe and in the US. But the real question is how deficits could be decreased everywhere," he stated, adding that he believed neither the US nor the EU have given adequate answers to that.