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Bulgaria’s inflation is still far above the values that are necessary for our entry into the Eurozone. This is what former Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov told “Focus”.
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“The real date we can enter is in January 2027. If a new regular government is formed quickly and it pushes itself to work quickly on this topic – maybe January 2026, but January 2025 was never possible for us to enter. It was political chewing gum,” Dyankov is emphatic.
The inflation criterion, according to which inflation should be at most 1.5 percentage points higher than that in the “best performing countries” is very good, the former finance minister emphasized.
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“This criterion is very good. It is the most important for entering the Eurozone, not just for entering, but for our enterprises and production to be competitive. And the relationship is as follows – if our inflation is higher than the average for entering the eurozone or in this case the criterion which is “the 3 countries with the lowest inflation” – if ours is higher and for some reason they accept us, it means that by whatever percentage we are above this inflation, we automatically enter as non-competitive. That is, our prices for labor, for materials – will be such a percentage more expensive than those in the Eurozone we convince someone in Brussels or in Frankfurt that they should accept us without him. Fortunately, they will not accept us without him. We just have to do our job,” explained Dyankov.
Bulgarians are divided on the subject of the Eurozone. About 60% want us to enter quickly, and the other 40% are hesitant, he also commented.
“This also depends on the sentiments of some parties who are “against” our entry into the Eurozone, but it is a fact that all Bulgarian businesses understand that our entry is beneficial for them. It will be much easier to regulate export and import prices from the EU, there will be more tourism for some cities – by the sea or Plovdiv, where in general there are more tourists. The economy will definitely strengthen with the entry, and in general I think that it will not be a particular political bubble. Anyway, which is the next in power in a regular government – we will try to enter quickly,” the former finance minister also said.
“Neither the BNB nor a series of finance ministers explained the benefits of our entry into the Eurozone,” Dyankov was categorical.
“Some of the fears are explained, such as the increase of some of the prices of certain products after we enter the Eurozone. This is not real, it is unlikely to happen. The pluses are not explained. The main pluses are two. One is related to the assets that Bulgarians have. It’s about land, houses, real estate. We see in other countries that enter the eurozone that prices increase significantly in the first year. Somewhere between 20-30% if you own agricultural land, houses or apartments – their price/value increases quite quickly, which in turn makes it possible to do more things with tourism explains, not just fears,” he said.
“Everything is a matter of interests, that’s why the positives are not emphasized. Until recently, the BNB was against our entry into the Eurozone, because there is also a fear that if we enter, the tasks of the BNB will be reduced by a lot. They will no longer manage our monetary resource, it will be managed from Frankfurt, including the inflation process, so they were not particularly enthusiastic, especially the previous leadership until last year, about our entry into the Eurozone in official governments, in the government “Petkov” was also not a supporter of the eurozone. Now somehow we saw him in a new face in recent months, but when those who are responsible for the entry – they are not sure, then it becomes such a sluggish campaign, which doesn’t exist at all, and because of that, people’s fears were well-founded,” explained Simeon Dyankov.
Already during the first caretaker government, in which Asen Vasilev was caretaker minister, inflation broke out. This thesis was confirmed by the former Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov.
“If you check in time, when we last fulfilled the inflation criterion – it was in September 2021. This is 2-3 months after the fall of the “Borisov 3” cabinet and the first of a number of caretaker governments – the most recent, when Asen Vasilev was the finance minister for the first time. Then such a policy was undertaken supposedly in the name of social welfare, equality, but prices rose sharply, some additional social benefits were given and, most importantly, large subsidies were given to absolutely undeserving large companies “Lukoil” type, for example. And then inflation shot up sharply and so far we are somewhere around 2.5 percentage points above what we should be,” said Dyankov.
“Asen Vassilev definitely pushed politics. This was also the reason why we are still not (note. ed. in the Eurozone). And that’s why recently when we hear that this is part of disinformation, from external forces – just us, if we had fulfilled the criteria – we would have been in the Eurozone. Let’s get on with it. I am convinced that if we manage to organize the next regular government in a series of caretaker governments – this government has a great chance to go down in history as the government that entered both the eurozone and the final Schengen. This is an additional chance for me to create a regular government “, Simeon Dyankov was categorical.
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