2023 will be a key year for Bulgaria in the preparations for the adoption of the euro

Bulgaria is entering a crucial year in the process of preparing the country for euro adoption. The deadline set in our plan for joining the euro area is 1 January 2024.

Over the next 12 months, our country must, in addition to changing its legislation, prepare its banking system.

What does this process entail?

The BNB Act has already been adopted and the changes to it as recommended by the ECB convergence report last year. A change to the commercial law is to be considered at first reading. The main one is the law on the euro. It should set the rate at which the euro will be adopted in Bulgaria. And there it is set at 1.95583 BGN. This law will include the procedure by which the euro will be introduced in practice.

"For how long will the prices be in euros and BGN, how will this period pass? In what way will all the other transformations take place in the different systems - in the social system, in the economy, towards business, the relationship between the public and private sectors? We have the possibility of the so-called sandbox - in which to test how it will affect people if we have the prices announced in a chain in euros and BGN for a given period of time and they will so orient that there is almost no change between the price in BGN and euro, so that all speculation is eliminated," said Lubomir Karimanski from the Ministry of Finance.