site.btaFinance Minister Leaves for Brussels to Present Bulgaria's Progress on Road to Eurozone

Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova leaves on a working visit to Brussels, where she will participate in the Eurogroup meeting on Monday, the Ministry said in a press release. Petkova will present to the ministers from the eurozone countries Bulgaria's progress in preparing for the introduction of the euro. According to the preliminary agenda, the hearing of the Bulgarian minister is scheduled to take place at the beginning of the meeting, the statement said.

The Government has repeatedly said that Bulgaria will request the preparation of a convergence report to assess whether the country meets all the criteria for euro area membership when the data show that Bulgaria meets the requirements. These include a budget deficit of up to 3% of GDP and an average annual inflation rate that does not exceed by more than 1.5 percentage points the inflation rate in the three best-performing EU Member States. 

The Finance Ministry is expected to submit a draft state budget for 2025 by the end of next week, while on February 24 it will become clear whether Bulgaria meets the price stability criterion, as Eurostat will publish data for January.