Stable Finances Pave the Way for Bulgaria’s Next Eurozone Steps
Bulgaria is expected to request extraordinary convergence reports from the European Commission and the European Central Bank for eurozone entry
International credit rating agency Fitch lowered the outlook for Bulgaria's credit rating from positive to stable, it was announced Tuesday.
Bulgaria's credit ratings, according to Fitch, however stay the same - at BBB- for foreign currency and BBB for domestic currency.
The revision is a part of a Fitch campaign to revise its ratings for the region of Central and Eastern Europe where it expects economies to suffer a slow down due to problematic growth in the EU.
According to the report, the geographical structure of Bulgaria's trade give its some degree of protection, given that 25% of Bulgarian exports are to Turkey and the country has significant trade with other non-EU CEE countries, such as Serbia and Croatia.
Fitch however expects those countries to be also hit by a slowing down of the eurozone in 2012, which is expected to create a secondary negative effect for Bulgaria.
The credit rating agency further considers that a target of 1.5% deficit in Bulgaria's state budget for 2012 is well set, but warns that revenue might be harder to collect next year.
The credit outlooks of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania have also been downgraded from positive to stable.
In its latest Global Economic Outlook, Fitch revised down its forecast for 2012 eurozone GDP growth to just 0.4%, from 0.8% in October version of the GEO and from 1.8% in the June GEO.
Bulgaria has met the inflation criterion required for entry into the Eurozone, with an average annual inflation rate of 2.6% over the last 12 months
Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute has reported that inflation for 2024 stands at 2.2%, a slight increase from the previous year
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The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has adopted a new regulation outlining the framework for providing emergency liquidity support to solvent banks once Bulgaria joins the Eurozone
Several banks in Bulgaria have recently announced changes to their fees
Petar Ganev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Market Economics, stated in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio that it is highly likely Bulgarians will begin making payments in euros starting from January 1 next year
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