The Law on the Euro is one of the most important laws that must be adopted by the newly elected Parliament. Despite the absorption of European funds, we are losing competitiveness and this is a permanent trend that we must change.
This was stated by the economist Rumen Galabinov in an interview for BGNES.
He recalled that this law has been ready since the last 49th National Assembly. “All opinions have been expressed on it, it has been agreed upon and is about to be submitted to the parliament and voted on,” said Galabinov. He emphasized that this is an important condition in order to meet the requirements of the European Central Bank and the European Commission for our acceptance into the Eurozone next year.
The economist also comments on how financial institutions and businesses are preparing for the adoption of the single currency.
„Financial institutions, banking and non-banking financial institutions, are well ahead in their technical preparation. Especially the banks, they constantly report and declare their readiness to start working with the euro from next year. That is they are already investing in their systems, in their organization, in their entire chain of operations. They have already made the necessary changes so that it will be possible to painlessly switch to the euro next year,”, Galabinov explained.
The same applies to non-banking institutions: “Insurance companies, investment funds, pension funds are also preparing according to the plan for the date 2025. The business accordingly shows understanding. In the majority of cases, he supports Bulgaria's acceptance into the Eurozone, Galabinov said.
According to him, the point is that they are waiting to see what the final readiness of both the banks and our country as a whole will be, in order to reaffirm the possibility of starting next year.
Rumen Galabinov emphasized that no one has yet canceled the deadline for our admission to the Eurozone in 2025. “It is on the agenda of the Bulgarian government. On the part of the Eurogroup, we expect to receive the convergent regular report literally in the next few days," noted the economist.
The report is made once every two years. No one was made last year. There are already the first interpretations of what will eventually be contained in this important document. “I admit that we will be encouraged and encouraged to work towards adopting the euro next year”, predicted the economist and added: “Of course, with some technical conditions. They concern our macroeconomic indicators in the inflation part. We continue to reduce inflation in Bulgaria at an accelerated rate. We will probably need another 3-6 months to be able to fully fulfill the Maastricht inflation criterion, which is the three countries with the lowest inflation, plus 1.5%, and then we will already have formal fulfillment of all requirements there as well” .
Rumen Galabinov also focused on the annual report of the Swiss Development Management Institute IMD on competitiveness. According to his ranking, Bulgaria has fallen 10 places over the last 4 years.
„Despite the absorption of European funds, we are losing competitiveness and this is a permanent trend that we must change,”, he commented. Galabinov believes that this can change with mass digitization of the Bulgarian economy and the introduction of more innovations and more high technologies. We also need to continue to improve infrastructure in general and pay attention to our labor market and demographics. “But this report also states that we should not delay our membership in the Eurozone and the overland Schengen, because this will contribute to the better competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy”, Rumen Galabinov is emphatic. I BGNES