Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Bulgaria's new centre-right government has accelerated efforts to join the Euro zone and aims to adopt the single currency by 2013 during its mandate, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said. Djankov, who is also deputy prime minister told a news conference, “My key goal for the whole mandate is Euro zone entry.” He also added that he is optimistic that this will happen. Interestingly, Bulgaria has set 2013 as the target date for adopting the euro, when the term of the new center-right government expires. Moreover, Bulgaria's new center-right government plans to apply in November to join the exchange-rate mechanism, the European Union's two-year currency stability test before the country can drop the lev and adopt the euro. Sofia plans to keep the peg of 1.95583 levs per euro until entering the euro zone.
According to the Djankov, the government had sent its mid-term fiscal and anti-crisis plans to the European Commission that include concrete steps and deadlines for their execution.
Bulgaria’s new cabinet has already won praise for cutting its spending to avoid an end-year budget deficit that could put pressure on Bulgaria's lev currency peg to the euro.
Bulgaria's entry into the Euro zone, initially scheduled for 2010, has been set back to 2012-2013 due to high inflation and a current account deficit of over 20% of GDP, which for several years has hindered the Balkan country's efforts to join the mechanism so far. Experts say it is conditional on continued fiscal prudence and lower inflation.
