And without being in the eurozone, Bulgaria has reached record inflation for the last 30 years. This was commented on in the studio of “Na Fokus” on Nova TV by economist Lachezar Bogdanov from the Institute for Market Economics.
“The very fact that we have been talking about a 3 percent budget deficit for several years already indicates that we are on the brink. This is the upper limit. As if recently this has been the best thing - to have such a hole constantly, and not when there is a crisis. As a rule, we should have a balanced budget and only in crises, as was the case during the pandemic, or when CorpBank went bankrupt, should we have a larger deficit”, the expert claimed.
According to him, when we enter the eurozone, the levs will continue to be exchanged for euros for a very, very long time by the Central Bank.
„Anyway, the budget report includes both cash-based reporting, something that can be seen day by day, and the available accrual-based reporting. This is done every year. At the end of next month, what seems like a logical option is for Bulgaria to meet the inflation criterion with the data in January and for us to have a new budget. Then a convergence report should be requested from the EC”, Bogdanov added.
„When we enter the eurozone, your contractual estimates are divided by 1.95583. If you have a salary of X, divide by this coefficient and you get the salary in euros. If the regulators do their job, there is nothing to fear”, the economist further explained.
According to him, in order for Bulgaria to be part of the single European market, it must adopt the euro.