"Bulgaria unconditionally meets all nominal criteria for joining the eurozone," said BNB Governor Dimitar Radev at a conference organized by "Capital". According to him, active participation in the European project is the best position for our country in the conditions of increasingly increasing geopolitical risks.
The Bulgarian economy is in a good position, assured Dimitar Radev, but emphasized that 2024 ended with a historically low level of the fiscal reserve:
"Regardless of the deterioration of fiscal indicators in recent years, our country still has maneuverability, both in terms of the available fiscal space and in terms of the possibilities for restoring the fiscal buffers depleted by the latest budgets".
"Uncertainty" and "unpredictability" are the key words for what lies ahead, the BNB Governor also said, pointing out that many of our country's main partners are readjusting their industries due to geopolitical risks and increasing protectionism:
"In an environment of such risks, it is extremely important for the economy to be well prepared for unexpected shocks that affect the aggregate supply of goods and services. This preparation at the macroeconomic level is expressed primarily in maintaining sufficient buffers in the banking and fiscal sectors. On the one hand, the existence of such buffers contributed to softening the effect of the materialization of the mentioned risks, and on the other hand, to the adaptation and potential extraction of benefits from changes in the world economy such as the restructuring of global production chains, because more and more countries are trying to reduce their dependence on production outside Europe.
"Active participation in the strengthening and development of the European project in today's geopolitical context is the surest guarantee for the good prospects for Bulgaria".
Regarding joining the eurozone, "our country currently unconditionally fulfills all the nominal convergence criteria, including the price stability criterion, with which we have had problems in recent years".
"We really have one final step left. I am convinced that we are able to do it with dignity and self-confidence. It is no coincidence that I emphasized that currently our country meets all the convergence criteria, in this sense, the successful finalization of the process has the potential to become a catalyst for the political, institutional and fiscal consolidation that the country so needs," said Dimitar Radev.