site.btaFebruary Inflation in Bulgaria Meets Price Stability Criterion for Euro Area Entry

The inflation rate in Bulgaria already meets the price stability requirement under the Maastricht criteria for euro area entry. This is according to the aggregated data for February on consumer price dynamics in the EU and the euro area, published on Wednesday by Eurostat.

In the second month of the current year, the average annual inflation (for the period March 2024-February 2025 compared to the period March 2023-February 2024) in Bulgaria was 2.6%.

In the euro area, the benchmark, which is defined as the arithmetic average of the three best-performing countries, is 2.7%, taking annual average harmonized consumer price indices.

The three benchmark countries are Finland (1.1%), Italy (1.2%) and Ireland (1.2%). Lithuania also has an annual average harmonized inflation rate of 1.2%.

In the January data, Bulgaria formally fell short of meeting the criterion by 0.7%.