Inflation in Bulgaria - on the verge of meeting the requirements for the introduction of the euro. The latest Eurostat data, published today, show that the countries reporting the least appreciation in January 2025 are Italy, Lithuania and Finland. The reference value with which we should compare inflation in our country is 2.53%. However, the increase in prices in Bulgaria is 2.6 percent, reports Nova TV.
Thus, purely mathematically, inflation in our country exceeds the European Union requirement by only 0.07 percent. The European Commission and the ECB will have the final say on whether this deviation is permissible or not. In the past, compromises have been made and countries with the lowest inflation have been removed from the formula. Thus, Croatia was admitted to the eurozone, although its inflation also exceeded the reference for Europe. However, the opposite has also happened - refusal has been given for only tenths of a percent.
The question is whether Bulgaria will request the two European institutions for an extraordinary assessment. By decision of the Bulgarian Parliament, the government was obliged, once our country meets the European requirements for the introduction of the single currency, to request extraordinary reports.
Data from Eurostat
The eurozone reported inflation of 2.5% in January, after it was at a level of 2.4 percent in December 2024. This means that the indicator has increased by 0.1 percentage point. A year earlier, the rate was 2.8%.
In January 2025 The highest contribution to annual inflation in the currency union comes from services (1.77 percentage points - pp), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (0.45 pp), energy (0.18 pp) and non-energy industrial goods (0.12 pp), Eurostat explained, quoted by BTA.
Annual inflation in the entire European Union in January compared to the same month of 2024 was 2.8 percent after 2.7% in December 2024. A year earlier, the rate was 3.1.
The highest inflation in January compared to the first month of last year was reported in Hungary (5.7%), Romania (5.3%) and Croatia (5.0%). The lowest annual rate is observed in Denmark (1.4%), Ireland (1.7%) and Italy (1.7%).
Bulgaria, whose annual inflation, measured according to the harmonized Eurostat methodology in January, was 3.8%, is in eighth place in terms of rate.
On a monthly basis in January, compared to December 2024, the euro area reported a decrease in prices by 0.3 percent, while in the EU monthly inflation was unchanged.
The countries with the highest monthly inflation are Bulgaria, Slovakia (both with 1.8 percent) and Lithuania (1.6%).