The optimism for the development of the Bulgarian economy in 2023 and this year is maintained. GDP growth will exceed that of last year, which is around 1.8%, and we expect it to exceed 2% and to approach 3%, but this depends on global dynamics. This was announced in the studio of ‘More from the Day’ by the Minister of Economy Bogdan Bogdanov.
‘We expect a positive growth of the Bulgarian economy and a positive growth of investments — something that we saw in 2023 — we reported record levels in the last 12-15 years, over BGN 7 billion of foreign direct investments in the 11 months of last year,’ Bogdanov explained.
Regarding Bulgaria’s entry into the euro area in 2025, the minister said that we must continue to fight the high inflation rates from last year and specified: ‘We have seen inflation coming down. We are currently at levels below 5%. This is the only criterion that Bulgaria has not met so far. In his words, every effort will be made to fulfil all commitments for Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.
Bogdan Bogdanov stressed the need to get our country off the negative list for money laundering. He added that last week the State Consolidation Company repaid its loan of over BGN 126 million to the Bulgarian Development Bank. Interest on the loan no longer flows and the state companies are not pledged as collateral.
Minister Bogdanov also said that he had a meeting with representatives of the Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF). It discussed future cooperation to ensure maximum transparency and stop the misuse of public funds.