In an interview last week, Petar Dimitrov argued that Bulgaria’s inflation rate had been ‘declining each month since January 2008’.

Dimitrov explained: “In January, inflation was 1.4% on a monthly basis, whereas in April it dropped down to 0,7%. The February and March values were 1.2% and 0.9% respectively.

"Bulgaria is second in the EU after Denmark according to the business climate rankings. We expect to take the first place in 2008.

”Bulgaria's industrial output grew 14% in 2007, which placed Bulgaria first in the EU on this criteria. Bulgaria actually had the cheapest electricity and natural gas in the Union. Food prices are also going down steadily in expectation of the high agricultural production in 2008".

EUROSTAT data, however, paints a different picture. According to their statistics, Bulgaria has the second highest inflation rate on an annual basis in the European Union – 13.4%, surpassed only by Latvia's 17.4%