BULGARIA - The three parties making up Bulgaria's coalition government have agreed a 10% increase in state old age pension payments from October.

The government said the move was made possible by a 20% over-performance of budget revenues by the end of July and a 3% cut in the social security burden.

This initiative also comes three months before local elections.

The pension increase was part of a package of measures that also include the replacement of the current three-level personal income tax rate system with a flat rate of 10%.

The cabinet meeting at which the agreement was reached was also attended by senior officials from the governing parties: the former communist Socialist Party (BSP), the liberal Movement for Simeon II (NMS) and the mostly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).



Topics