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"Our goal for membership in the Eurozone remains January 1, 2024. We expect the National Assembly to adopt three key bills that have been introduced by the caretaker government and on which commitments have already been made to the Currency Mechanism 2. This was stated by the Minister of Finance Rositsa Velkova, quoted by BTA.

According to the procedure, our country must request the so-called

convergence report, which examines the fulfillment of the convergence criteria and legal compatibility, and according to the minister, the request for its submission should be made in early spring at the latest.

The positive thing at the end of the 2022 budget year is that the deficit on an accrual basis is 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, on a cash basis it will be indicatively below 1 percent.

"For the convergent report, the deficit on an accrued basis, which is within the criteria, will be important to us. We also meet the debt criteria," Minister Velkova explained. "Our only serious challenge, as part of the nominal criteria for the eurozone, is inflation.

The government is taking actions, as far as it can with fiscal policy, to reduce it," she adds.

Bulgaria in the Eurozone - advantages and opportunities

"This is the year in which we meet all the numerical criteria without inflation, which is extremely affected by the war in Ukraine. This will mainly be the thesis that we will defend, but we are also trying to make additional efforts so that the deviation is less than it is at the moment," notes the finance minister.

The Minister of Finance notes that, in addition to the advance excess profit that Lukoil contributed to the budget at the end of 2022 and which will be directed to a fuel scheme, another BGN 100 million is planned for anti-inflationary measures that will be developed measures to support vulnerable groups of citizens using bus transport.

In connection with the domestic political situation and the so-called extended budget law and how this affects the procedure for admission to the eurozone, Rositsa Velkova points out that according to the European Semester Bulgaria must have a three-year budget forecast prepared for the period 2024-2026 and accordingly a baseline budget option to meet the accrual basis deficit criteria.

This means that, on a cash basis, the deficit must be below 3 percent and medium-term fiscal sustainability must be ensured while respecting the fiscal rules.

In her words, this basic budget should at least be adopted by the government and submitted to the newly formed National Assembly, if elections are held.

"We have received BGN 2.7 billion for already fulfilled criteria under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan (RSP). These funds are absolutely indisputable, they are in the fiscal reserve, of which the expenditure that took place in 2022 is no more than BGN 100 million. That is, we have a resource with which to implement these investments, which are indisputable and which will not be renegotiated, but a possible failure to receive the second and third payment in 2023 will significantly affect the deficit in a negative direction, since the expenses will be carried out at the expense of funds received for the previous year," warns the minister.

She expressed concerns that due to the political situation, it is quite realistic that there will be a delay with the second and third payment under the PVA due to the objective impossibility of passing the necessary bills in time in case of parliamentary elections.