February 17 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria will not be able to join the eurozone as planned on January 1, 2024 due to a delay in the adoption of required legislation and failure to keep inflation within the prescribed limits, finance minister Rositsa Velkova said on Friday.
Bulgaria is now aiming to adopt the single currency on January 1, 2025, but this could happen earlier, Velkova said, as seen in a video file posted by local Nova TV channel.
Bulgaria's 12-month average harmonised consumer price inflation, at 13.0% in December, has been well above the rate of the three best-performing EU member states throughout 2022. In January, it dropped to 14.1%.
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union since 2007, operates a currency board system pegging the lev to the euro at a fixed exchange rate. The country joined the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II), the training ground for euro adoption, and the EU's banking union, in July 2020.