Bulgaria is in talks with the European Union to make an exception for admission to the Eurozone from 2025, despite the inflation criterion being unmet. To meet the bloc’s price stability criterion, inflation must usually be no higher than 1.5 points above the value in the three member states with the lowest inflation. Bulgaria is currently just over 2 points away from this goal, with the forecast for average annual inflation in 2024 at 4.8%. Croatia, however, was granted accession by means of an exceptional model of accounting during the EU’s accession calculations.
„There are a number of actions that are taking place, such as, for example, checks on cargo imports,” said Minister of Finance Asen Vassilev. “There were quite a few commodity groups that this year import at an average price that is lower by about 20-30% compared to last year. Which with these inflationary processes in the world is quite dubious.”
The European institutions’ report on Bulgaria’s readiness to join the Eurozone is expected in spring 2024. The imposition of a new tax for the transfer of Russian gas is not pressure on Austria, which refuses to vote for Bulgaria’s admission to Schengen. If the parliament adopts the tax laws proposed by the Ministry of Finance, the total effect for the budget will be 758 million leva. The main gap found when taking office was from VAT on imports, about 700 million leva.
