[Bulgarian National Bank]
Bulgaria's failure to meet the European Central Bank's inflation target in June could delay its entry into the euro zone, scheduled for 2025, by several months, the country's central bank chief said.
“If Bulgaria fails to meet the inflation benchmark in June and does so in the second half of 2024, it could join the eurozone in the second half of 2025 rather than January 1, which is more likely at this stage. scenario,” Dimitar Radev told the newspaper. Bulgarian News Agency.
The next ECB biennial convergence report will be published in June. This includes a country-by-country assessment of the performance of each candidate participating in the euro currency.
Bulgaria's annual inflation rate fell to 3.5% in March, but it may not be low enough to join the eurozone. To participate, a country's inflation rate cannot exceed that of its best-performing member state by more than 1.5 percentage points.
Radev said in an interview that fiscal policy will play a role in controlling prices.
“The budget should be anti-cyclical, anti-inflationary, and at the moment it is not,” Radev said.
“Our own experience, as well as global experience, shows that this is best achieved through effective cost management and control measures.”
He said the banking sector had “reached a very advanced stage of readiness, with concrete achievements in the institutional framework, capacity and logistics.” [Reuters]
