Bulgaria Likely to Adopt Euro from January 1st, Says Institute for Market Economics‘ Senior Researcher
Despite the political turmoil in the country, there’s a realistic scenario that by 1st January next year, we’ll be paying in euros. This is according to Petar Ganev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Market Economics, who shared his views with BNR.
Strangely enough, he believes that as early as next week, we could receive a green light and request an emergency report, adding that it’s likely the economy will meet the price criterion in a matter of days.
"Our average annual inflation will be around 2.5-2.6%," Ganev predicted.
The special law currently under debate regulates the legal aspects, but in reality, we’re already in the new year. The extension, written in the regulatory laws, only works on its own. We’ve already made payments that do not burden certain groups in society, Ganev commented on the special legal decree proposed by the caretaker government due to the absence of an adopted regular budget for 2025.
"The issue of the minimum pension was resolved in a suitable way – in favor of pensioners, without anyone being harmed. The matter of the minimum wage for state servants remains – roughly speaking, this concerns around 100,000 people. That issue stands, but it’s been standing for years, there’s no difference in the situation," he added.
If the current budget remains in place, the 10% increase in salaries in the administration can’t happen, Ganev explained. For teachers, it’s a "gentleman’s agreement," not written in the law. More contentious is the issue with MVM and MO – there is a legal text. This question remains open. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is doing its best to cope with these texts, despite it significantly weighing on the budget, the economist noted.
The best scenario for the armed forces would be to increase it in steps, he believes.
It’s most likely that the action of the extended law will be prolonged. There’s a variant that this scenario could repeat, Ganev pointed out regarding the budget, and reminded that we’ve seen this variant before.
"It’s hardly possible to manage the whole year like this. But this manual management gives a very high level of uncertainty about how the state’s funds are spent," he warned.
In this scenario, investments would suffer, he is certain.
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