Eurozone Expansion: All Member States Back Bulgaria's Entry in 2026
The convergence reports on Bulgaria, issued by the European Commission and the European Central Bank, are expected to receive broad support from all Eurozone countries
In April 2025, Bulgaria's inflation rate reached 2.8% year-on-year, marking an increase of 0.3% compared to the same month in 2024, when it was 2.5%, according to Eurostat. This development comes as the country anticipates a positive convergence report on June 4, a critical step toward adopting the euro on January 1, 2026. According to Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, the European Commission has assessed Bulgaria's public finances as stable and sustainable, a positive signal for the eurozone entry.
Across the eurozone, the annual inflation rate in April 2025 stood at 2.2%, unchanged from March but slightly down from 2.4% a year earlier. The European Union saw its inflation rate decrease to 2.4% in April, compared to 2.5% in March, and 2.6% in April 2024, Eurostat data shows.
The countries with the lowest annual inflation rates in April were France (0.9%), Cyprus (1.4%), and Denmark (1.5%), while the highest rates were recorded in Romania (4.9%), Estonia (4.4%), and Hungary (4.2%). Compared to March 2025, annual inflation dropped in thirteen EU Member States, remained stable in three, and rose in eleven.
In the eurozone, the main contributors to the annual inflation rate were services, adding 1.80 percentage points, followed by food, alcohol, and tobacco at 0.57 percentage points. Non-energy industrial goods contributed 0.15 percentage points, while energy had a negative impact, subtracting 0.35 percentage points from the overall rate.
In April 2025, Bulgaria recorded a current account deficit of 724.9 million euros, marking the largest monthly shortfall since January 2022
With Bulgaria set to adopt the euro on January 1, 2026, questions are surfacing about whether the country might face financial risks similar to those that led to Greece’s debt crisis
The introduction of dual pricing in leva and euro is progressing smoothly and, in some cases, even ahead of the planned timeline in Bulgaria
Annual inflation in Bulgaria accelerated slightly in May, reaching 3.7%
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