Montenegro hopes to join the European Union and the eurozone in 2028, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said, quoted by "Reuters", BTA reports.
Membership would mark some progress in the EU's eastward enlargement, which is currently stalled.
Spajic said the small Balkan country, whose economy has almost doubled in the past five years, wants to sell new government bonds to institutional or individual investors.
The EU is again trying to attract new members after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, noting that the outbreak of war has highlighted the danger of the existence of "gray areas" just outside the bloc, which are not a healthy part of the West.
Spajic said he aims to meet the remaining criteria set by the European Commission - mostly related to institution-building - by the end of next year and start accession talks in 2027.
The 27 existing EU members, which began talks with Montenegro in 2012, will then have to approve the country's entry into the bloc.
"If we have 27 hands supporting our candidacy, we hope to see ourselves in the EU in 2028," the prime minister said after a meeting with German businessmen and politicians.
Spajic expressed hope that Montenegro, which adopted the euro long before gaining full independence from Serbia in 2006, would be accepted simultaneously into the eurozone - a club of 20 countries with a seat on the European Central Bank.
According to EU rules would require the country to keep inflation and long-term interest rates within the range of the best-performing eurozone members.
Inflation in Montenegro, which imports more than it exports, including energy and food, averaged 3.1% in the 12 months to July - above the eurozone and EU averages.
However, economic output rose to 7.8 billion euros last year from 4.2 billion in 2020.
Net wages have doubled from 500 euros in early 2022 to 1,000 euros this year thanks to tax cuts, Spajic said.
Montenegro's central bank has raised questions about the government's revenue and debt forecasts last year, but Spajic - a former credit analyst at Goldman Sachs - has defended his government's performance and the central bank's independence. bank.
"Our deficit is around 1% for the first eight months of the year," he noted.
The government is considering new debt sales to institutional investors in London, Frankfurt or Tokyo, as well as retail bond sales to local audiences.