We can hope for a positive response to enter the eurozone from the European Commission and the European Central Bank before Easter and setting the date for entry, which will probably be January 1, 2026. This was said by financial expert Rumen Galabinov in the program "Bulgaria, Europe and the World in Focus" on Radio "Focus".
As the first task before the government, he indicated the adoption of the budget, and immediately after that, administrative, technical and informational preparation and a campaign for the introduction of the euro should begin from January 1, 2026.
"The Euro campaign itself is late. It should start immediately after a date is set, so that it has at least six months, and if possible, continue into next year. It should be not only on the websites of the BNB and the Ministry of Finance, but in all major media outlets, so that people can be informed and avoid unnecessary fears that currently exist, to get rid of disinformation and rumors and for people to believe that it is very useful to become a member of the eurozone," said the financial expert.
Bulgaria has been in a currency board with a fixed exchange rate to the euro for 25 years, noted Galabinov. In this sense, switching to the euro is the easiest possible technical operation, he believes.
According to him, exceeding the inflation criteria for the eurozone by 0.7% will not be a problem.
"In view of the statistics for the entire past 2024, the trends for reducing inflation and keeping the budget deficit within 3 percent, we are currently planning to adopt a budget for this year and for the next three years, and to remain within these parameters, with the budget deficit below 3% and even falling to 2.2%. It may even turn out that the average inflation in the eurozone is higher than that in Bulgaria," believes Rumen Galabinov.
The reason for this is that in the last 6 months the ECB has reduced the key interest rate in the eurozone twice.
"Interest rates in the euro are decreasing and this stimulates economies for economic growth, however, this is also a pro-inflationary factor, which accordingly increases inflation in the eurozone. We are going down with our inflation and trying to stabilize at certain levels, while inflation in the eurozone will rise slightly," explained the expert.
The government must take into account the higher inflation for January and make this the focus of the management of the Bulgarian economy, so that in the next 6 months we can manage to keep it within the required framework, Galabinov emphasized.
"That is, "The price level and price stability should be one of the priorities of the Bulgarian government. In this way, public and consumer expectations for fairer prices will be met," he added.