"Fully prepared": Bulgarian National Bank governor expects improved attitudes toward the euro

Support for the euro among Bulgarians will be much higher in a year's time, when Bulgaria is expected to join the eurozone. This was stated by the governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), Dimitar Radev, on Tuesday, as quoted by BTA. He explained that the process had been the same for other countries that had joined.

All new member states entered with the same ratio of support and skepticism, and 1-3 years later, support was over 70%," he added.

According to Radev, Bulgaria is "fully ready" to join the eurozone after it became clear on Monday that the country has consistently met the inflation criterion. Price increases in Bulgaria were lower than the European average for the third consecutive month in April.

However, the head of the central bank explicitly emphasized that the introduction of the new currency has no bearing on price growth, as this is influenced by other factors.

We are an open economy—if energy prices go up, this will inevitably have an impact on the country and will not be related to the introduction of the euro," Radev commented.

When asked whether Bulgarians' savings would melt away after the country joined the eurozone, he said that the new member states that joined the eurozone years ago already had 10-15 percent income growth and a higher standard of living.

This text was translated by DeepL Translator.