Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov recently put the question in a form most Bulgarians will recognize from their own experience, saying it is not normal for him to sit in a restaurant in Vienna and one in Sofia and find the prices relatively the same when the standard of living is completely different. The restaurant associations answered that comparing Vienna and Sofia without also comparing tax burden, purchasing power, labor costs, rents, energy, supplies and the administrative environment is not economic analysis but convenient political talk, and that the first step toward lower prices would be a reduced VAT rate for the sector.

The Bulgarian government and representatives of the restaurant industry have clashed over food and service prices, wages and calls for the return of a preferential VAT rate for…

Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov recently put the question in a form most Bulgarians will recognize from their own experience, saying it is not normal for him to sit in a…