The geopolitical situation in the world helped Bulgaria join the eurozone. This was stated in “120 minutes“ by the Chairman of the Fiscal Council Simeon Dyankov. According to him, US President Donald Trump and Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova are the main “culprits“ for our country to hear the final “yes“ for adopting the single European currency.
“In March, Trump said that Europe should pay for its security, that America would not pay all the time. Suddenly there was a commotion in Brussels, what to do and how to develop budgets. Our government – Rosen Zhelyazkov and Temenuzhka Petkova skillfully used this situation to transfer some expenses from 2024 to previous and subsequent years, and suddenly it turned out that we meet the criteria“, explained Djankov.
According to the analysis published by the Fiscal Council for Croatia, 40% of the inspected traders after the adoption of the euro tried to raise prices, but were seriously fined. Djankov commented that there is already talk of speculation in our country and he hopes that there will be no attempts to artificially increase the price of goods. According to him, due to the currency board, it is difficult to change the price.
Djankov said that he does not believe that there will be an increase in taxes due to entering the eurozone, but new regulations will certainly be introduced to control speculation. “There is currently a lot of talk, but there is no legal basis on which to establish speculation in a specific enterprise. How much does the price have to be raised to talk about speculation? This legal framework was created quite late in Croatia – 2 years after entering the eurozone, they are still working on it“, said Djankov.
According to the financier, our country will exceed the budget deficit of 3%, but in May the EC allowed each country to increase the allowable threshold to 4.5%. According to him, there should be a change in the state's spending policy for next year. Djankov was categorical that the last item from which expenses can be cut is “Defense“.
The financier commented that the “Danish model”, each ministry cutting 2% of its expenses, is suitable for our country. However, this policy is not applied in the education, health and cultural departments.
Regarding the corruption scandals in our country, Dyankov is categorical that they cannot influence our accession to the eurozone.