Bulgaria's eurozone entry likely to be delayed - c-bank gov

"This is a possible and, at this stage, more likely scenario," Radev said in an interview with BTA on Thursday, as quoted by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

Bulgaria's annual inflation under the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) slowed to 3.1% in March from 3.5% in February, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said earlier this week. To qualify for eurozone entry, an EU member state's inflation rate should not exceed by more than 1.5 percentage points that of the three best-performing member states, according to the European Central Bank's (ECB) website.

Radev noted that in order to tackle inflation, Bulgaria's budget needs to be anti-cyclical, which it is currently not.

"The global and our own experience shows that this can best be achieved through measures for effective cost management and control," Radev added.

The BNB and the banking sector are at an advanced stage of preparation for the eurozone, with ongoing investments and progress in institutional framework, capacity and logistics, although more work remains to be done, Radev said.

ECB and the European Commission issue convergence reports monitoring countries' progress towards euro adoption at least once every two years or at the request of an EU member state which would like to join the euro area, with the last report published in June 2022.