At first glance it seems easy to predict the year 2010. World economies will slowly emerge from the financial crisis and unemployment around the globe will gradually drop. Banks and financial institutions will continue to pay big bonuses to their managers and not worry too much about it.

Western Europeans will rate Barak Obama more than the Americans and even more that the Eastern Europeans. The US and EU will exchange pleasantries but will enjoy less understanding.

China will continue to grow but by how much, who knows because they don't tell us. Brazil & India will boost their economic and political importance. Croatia will come close to EU membership and Turkey will not!!

Gordon Brown will probably lose the election and David Cameron will probably become Prime Minister

But what about Bulgaria, I hear you ask? Well there are some parallels to what we have witnessed and experienced here in the UK over recent times, and it is to their credit that the Bulgarians are in the position they are in today due to their prompt action on seeing what was happening in the West, unlike Greece and Cyprus, who are now paying the price for deluding themselves that they were immune to all of this.

The Bulgarian parliament will adopt a conservative budget for 2010 and the finance ministry will have enough reserves for the second half of the year to surprise the local population with greater spending.

As a whole the Cabinet will close the year with either a small deficit or a balanced budget and it is likely that at some point in the first quarter of 2010, application for ERM II (Exchange Rate Mechanism) membership will be made in preparation for the introduction of the Euro.

By the second half of 2010 the economy is expected to be back on track, with Industrial production starting to recover buoyed by export and domestic demand with inflation in 2010 expected to remain low at below 3%.

The banking system will remain stable - interest rates on deposits will fall while the interest on borrowing will drop by a smaller amount. Banks will increase their margins as a way of dealing with the inevitable bad debt factor. Lending will increase gradually but the bank financing for new office projects and shopping malls, as has been the recent fashion, may have to wait a little bit longer.

The drop in the property market will have stopped by the spring and is expected to be followed by stabilisation and a growth in the second half of the year unlikely to exceed 5% - but at least they won't drop.

Levski Sofia will not win the Bulgarian Championship.