''The loss from Bulgaria's delayed membership in the Eurozone and Schengen is between 4% and 5% of the country's GDP'', Bulgaria’s Minister of Finance Assen Vassilev said in an interview for Nova TV. ''The business loses between EUR 250 million and EUR 500 million just from currency conversion. Separately, delaying eurozone membership leads to higher interest rates and less investment'', Minister Vassilev said.
The losses stemming from Bulgaria’s delayed membership in Schengen are also huge, Minister Vassilev said with regard to the government’s draft decree, according to which Bulgaria should include in an official document the date January 1, 2025, as a target date for adopting the euro. Assen Vassilev said that this act is necessary, because the caretaker cabinet had not written down the date January 1, 2024, as the target date for Eurozone membership, and because it had drafted a budget with a 6.4% deficit.
Preliminary data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) shows a 1.3% increase in employment from March to June 2025, reaching 2.38 million. The hotel and restaurant sector had the largest increase in employment (24.8%), followed by real estate..
The lack of sufficient manpower and strong private consumption are the main reasons for inflation, according to the second "Economic Review" of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) for the year. Annual inflation is 2.9%, increasing by 2.1% by May 2025..
After months of low inflation and even temporary deflation in April this year, according to official national statistics, the trend abruptly reversed. On July 15, literally days after Bulgaria received a green light from Brussels for..
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