Negative impacts of the neo-liberal policies on the banking sector in Bulgaria

Artikel

From the beginning of the 1970s until the last global financial and economic crisis in 2008 - 2009, neo-liberal ideas guided economic policy development. It is worth noting that the Central and Eastern European countries transformed their economies from centrally planned to a market type at the peak of the liberal policies. Bulgaria offers a particularly interesting example because the country encountered a very difficult transition from one extreme of an economic system organization to another. The paper considers the reforms in the Bulgarian banking sector during the transition period from a centrally planned to a market type economy (from 1989 onward) through the implementation of neo-liberal policies. The development of the banking sector and its transformation is analyzed throughout the two main periods: before and after the transition. The latter is divided into two sub-periods (phases) beginning with the early 1990s, followed by the financial and bank crisis in the country, the introduction of a currency board regime in 1997, and stabilization, and ending with the global crisis in 2008 - 2009. This article summarizes that during the transition period, a modern banking system was established to accumulate profit rather than to promote economic growth. Following a chronological order, the negative effects of the liberalization of the Bulgarian banking sector are specified: the exportation of ownership (and control) upon banking system assets, unfair asset redistribution, the emergence of the local oligarchy, the weak protection of the taxpayers and others.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Contemporary Economics ; ISSN: 2084-0845 ; Volume: 9 ; Year: 2015 ; Issue: 1 ; Pages: 61-75 ; Warsaw: Vizja Press & IT

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; History of Economic Thought: Macroeconomics ; History of Economic Thought since 1925: Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School ; Central Banks and Their Policies
• Subject: neo-liberal policies ; transition from centrally planned to a market type economy ; financial sector ; Bulgarian banking system

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Pavlova, Rossitsa Rangelova ; Sariiski, Grigor
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Vizja Press & IT
• (where): Warsaw
• (when): 2015

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5709/ce.1897-9254.160
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/141898
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET