A dozen sympathizers of the “Revival” political party gathered today in front of the building of the National Statistical Institute in protest, under the pretext that inflation data is being falsified in connection with the country’s accession to the Eurozone.
The President of the NSI, Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD invited the attending members of the political party – Tsoncho Ganev and Deyan Nikolov and the leader of political party “MIR” Simeon Slavchev into the building of the NSI. During the meeting, held in front of the media, and in response to their demand to be provided with the input data on the basis of which inflation is calculated, he once again stated that the Law on Statistics prohibits the provision of individual data under any circumstances, even to Members of Parliament.
To Tsoncho Ganev’s accusation that the NSI is under pressure to manipulate inflation data so that Bulgaria can be “brought” into the Eurozone, the President of the NSI replied the following: “The NSI neither gives recommendations, nor advises to join the Eurozone. And the only ones who have tried to put pressure on the NSI since I have been President are the Member of Parliament from PP Revival.”
At the end of the meeting Assoc. Prof. Atanasov declared that he will refer the threats made to the Institute, including towards individual employees, to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. “I will not allow the NSI to bend regardless of the pressure of one or another political party and whether it likes the reported inflation or not. We work according to established European standards, a transparent methodology, and on Friday, 14 February, the inflation data will be published as it is!” he added.
