By the end of December this year at the latest, Bulgaria can fulfill the last criteria for joining the Eurozone, related to price stability. This was confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova at a meeting with the Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva. Together with the governor of the BNB Dimitar Radev Petkova participated in the annual meetings of the fund and the World Bank in Washington, ending today, BNR reports.
According to the forecasts of the Ministry of Finance, the inflation criterion, which is the only one outside the requirements of the Maastricht Treaty, can be fulfilled at the end of November or in December at the latest, according to the announcement of the Ministry of Finance. Deputy Prime Minister Lyudmila Petkova has confirmed in Washington that within 2 weeks of its implementation, new reports will be requested from the European Commission and the European Central Bank, as decided by the National Assembly.
Yesterday, in an interview for BTA, Governor Dimitar Radev stated that our country must have a stable fiscal position. According to the central banker, an “urgent discipline of the budget both in process and content” is needed. The budget for next year will be an indicator of whether we are going in the right direction, Dimitar Radev believes, and emphasizes that chronic deficits with a "loose budget" are paid for by taxpayers – i.e. households and businesses and lead to a higher debt burden for the country.