The Bulgarian National Bank will make a contribution to the budget in the amount of BGN 800 million for this year. This was stated in a flash interview for BTA by the Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, Dimitar Radev. This is happening after last year the BNB contributed BGN 660 million to the state treasury. Radev made a comment on the views of our central bank on the budget, the eurozone, the past visit of representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the request by representatives of "Vazrazhdane" meeting with him earlier this week.
The BNB is currently analyzing the draft budget for 2025, which was "just" received by the institution. The central bank is expected not to publish its comments, as it did with the draft budget proposed by the caretaker government at the end of last year. At that time, according to Radev, there were "extremely unacceptable texts that directly affect the BNB".
Regarding the eurozone and the commitment made by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to send a request for extraordinary convergence reports to the European Commission and the European Central Bank, the BNB governor stated that he would sign them "without a doubt".
As an "attempted political action with the wrong addressee" Radev described the actions of representatives of "Vazrazhdane", who on Monday entered the central bank building and requested an unscheduled meeting with him.
Here is the full text of BTA's blitz interview with BNB Governor Dimitar Radev:
Mr. Radev, the parliament has just voted to drop from the agenda the item for your hearing regarding "Vazrazhdane"'s allegations of a secret IMF mission. How do you assess this decision?
- I, of course, was ready to get involved, but I assess the National Assembly's decision as correct. The issue of the IMF mission was sufficiently clarified, including in the press releases of the Ministry of Finance and the IMF itself.
It probably wouldn't have come to this if you had agreed to meet with the representatives of "Vazrazhdane" earlier this week.
- Probably. I read their "visit" to the BNB not as an attempt at a meeting, but as an attempt at a political action with the wrong addressee. I am convinced that such events have no place in the BNB building.
What do you think about the submitted draft of the State Budget Law for 2025?
- We have just received the draft and are carefully studying it. When we are ready, we will send specific comments to the Ministry of Finance.
Will you publish these comments?
- Probably not, we will stick to our traditional approach. The exception we made with the caretaker government's draft was the inclusion of extremely unacceptable texts that directly affect the BNB. At first reading, we do not see these texts in the new draft.
Can we expect the BNB to make a contribution to the state budget in 2025 and what will be its amount?
- Yes, in accordance with the BNB Law. The total amount of the contributed funds will amount to nearly 800 million leva, of which 550 million leva. are due to the excess of revenues over expenditures of the BNB, and the rest is due to interest payments to the budget.
The BNB is emerging as one of the few central banks that have made a significant profit for the second consecutive year. How do you achieve it?
- The short answer is - we know what we are doing. The detailed answer is in the bank's report.
Finally, I cannot help but ask you about the eurozone. Will you sign the request for an extraordinary convergence report?
- Yes, without a doubt.