A significant improvement in the quality of life is observed in the countries that have joined the eurozone. This was explained to the Bulgarian National Radio by Lyubomir Datsov, a member of the Fiscal Council, former Deputy Minister of Finance.
The average net monthly salary of employees in Croatian companies in March this year amounted to 1,448 euros. This represents a real increase of 5.8% compared to March last year.
In our country, an analysis by the Fiscal Council indicates that
the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that have adopted the euro are catching up with the average income for the EU at a slightly faster pace than the countries in the region that are outside the eurozone.
Lyubomir Datsov highlighted as an important factor that the countries that have adopted the euro are located in a common trade area.
"This helps economies to develop much faster".
He explained, however, that national policies improve the quality of life: "Different types of policies exhaust their capacity and if you do nothing, you start to fall behind. The big lesson for governments is that they cannot rest on their laurels."
In the last two years, the Croatian economy, excluding Malta, has been the fastest growing within the EU, the former deputy finance minister explained.
"This is largely due to the interest in this country. It is a tourist country, but the structure of tourists who visit it has changed. They are already more solvent".
There is also interest in it as an economy, as a country with lower risk, and this leads to an improvement in investments, Datsov pointed out.
He commented on the fact that
at the moment, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania are outside the eurozone.
"Some countries are governed by conservatives who, despite having joined the EU, insist on showing that they are nationalists, that they are doing things differently.
There are cases when they may want to, but this would mean taking quite unpopular measures to stabilize the economy.
Romania cannot join even if it wants to, because its indicators are out of whack everywhere - both for inflation and for the state of the budget. In the fiscal sphere, Romania will need at least 7-8 years to meet the criteria for entering the eurozone.
Poland is a very interesting case. It benefited very well from EU funds back in 2010. It was the only country that did not have such a big decline as a result of the crisis in 2008-2009. The government found a way to absorb EU funds in an unprecedented way. They managed to plug the hole that was created in the economy with them.
Poland is currently also benefiting from the war in Ukraine, from being one of the largest economies. Polish companies and chains are already operating in Bulgaria.
Polish business is very resourceful and is developing extremely well".
The eurozone supports the right policy, Datsov explained.
"The combination of the favorable environment you are in with the right policy on the part of the government accelerates things further. Economically active people find themselves in a lower-risk environment.
Purely economically, the euro has been introduced in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian lev is backed by the euro".