Dimitar Radev was re-elected as the Governor of Bulgaria's Cenral Bank

The current governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Dimitar Radev will keep his post after being re-elected for another term in office. On July 18, 2023, MPs voted to re-elect him with 155 votes in favour, 67 against and zero abstentions. Radev was competing for the post with Lyubomir Hristov, a financier proposed by "Vazrazhdane". Hristov received the support of 39 MPs.

Dimitar Radev was elected Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank on 15 July 2015 and has been in office for eight years. An attempt by the ruling party last year to elect a new governor failed. Then there were two candidates - Andrei Gyurov from "We Continue the Change" and Lyubomir Karimanski from "There is Such a People". Gyurov dropped out of the race after information emerged that he did not have a legitimate master's degree. Karimanski, on the other hand, did not receive enough votes to be elected.

Dimitar Radev was nominated for a second term by the largest parliamentary group, GERB-UDF and supported by the “We Continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria”. He has a master's degree in finance, worked for many years in the Ministry of Finance, and was deputy finance minister several times between 1992 and 2001. He has also held various positions in the IMF. If elected for a second term, he will become the longest serving Governor of Bulgaria’s central bank.

Lyubomir Hristov, the candidate of "Vazrazhdane", is also a well-known name in financial circles. He has a PhD in economics from the UNWE, is a former chief economist of the BNB and has held various positions at the IMF. He was the Executive Director of the Central Depository and worked in the field of financial consulting.

Both candidates for governor presented concepts in the Parliament’s budget committee last week. According to the concepts, Bulgaria should be admitted to the eurozone, but while Radev wants this to happen as quickly as possible, Hristov thinks it should wait. The Bulgarian socialist Pary (BSP) withdrew their candidate for the post because they believe the choice was predetermined.

According to the information presented so far, Andrei Gyurov from WCC-DB and Petar Chobanov from MRF will be elected BNB deputy governors.

At the moment, the BNB Governing Council includes Governor Radev, three deputy governors Kalin Hristov of the Issue Department, Nina Stoyanova of the Banking Department, Radostin Milenkov of the Banking Supervision Department and three members - Lyudmila Elkova, Nikolay Nenovski, Iliya Lingorski.

Desislava Atanasova from GERB-UDF presented the nomination of Dimitar Radev:

"Within Mr Radev's term of office, all the objectives set for his election in 2015 have been fulfilled. This is confirmed by the indicators of the financial stability of the banking sector, as well as the country's accession to the Single Banking Council and our acceptance into the euro area waiting room."

Deyan Nikolov presented the candidacy of "Vazrazhdane":

"It is a great honour for us that Dr. Lyubomir Hristov accepted to be our candidate for the post of Governor of BNB. I believe that the central bank needs an objective and independent governor to defend Bulgarian interests."

"You will hear from me only good things about the two candidates in terms of experience and education. But we, from BSP, will not support the choice for the following reasons: the ruling society violated the principles of the elections, the winner was announced in advance.," commented Rumen Gechev from BSP for Bulgaria.

Radostin Vassilev, independent: "I will not support the nomination of Dimitar Radev, not because of his qualities, but because he is a GERB nominee."

"There is Such a People" (TISP) criticized "We Continue the Change".

Toshko Yordanov, TISP: "Assen Vassilev will look sad when Gyurov becomes deputy governor and they cut off his functions, you are dancing to GERB’s tune and they will cut you off in the end."

According to Georgi Ganev from WCC-DB, both nominations for BNB governor are worthy:

"From my point of view as a macroeconomist whose narrow field is monetary policy, what happened in the budget committee was extremely positive, I came out with positive feelings. A well conducted procedure with quality candidates."