Bulgaria to enter eurozone waiting room in July, PM says

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has forecast that the country will enter the ERM II system of the eurozone in July this year, Bulgarian National Radio has reported.

The prime minister also said unemployment levels were expected to fall below five per cent, and that the country’s foreign debt would amount to 17.5 per cent of Bulgaria’s GDP at the end of 2019.

Joining the eurozone will lead to huge investments being made in Bulgaria, the PM added.

The ministry of finance forecasts that Bulgaria can adopt the EU’s common currency no earlier than 2022, but entering the eurozone one year later than the original target is considered a more likely scenario.

The minimum amount of time a country applying to join the economic and monetary union has to spend in the so-called eurozone waiting room is two years, time in which it can prepare its economic and financial system for the adoption of the new currency, as well as to prepare its exchange and interest rates .

“But this is not the case for Bulgaria because we have had a successful currency board for 22 years now, where we have a fixed exchange rate. We are ready for the eurozone,” said the country’s former minister for the economy Nikolay Vassilev.