Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Dimitar Radev expressed support for the National Assembly’s decision regarding the request for an extraordinary convergence report on Bulgaria’s admission to the eurozone. Radev confirmed that the request would be signed “without a doubt”.
He also commented on the recent controversy surrounding claims by the “Revival” party about a secret mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Bulgaria. On February 17, “Revival” leader Kostadin Kostadinov and several party deputies entered the BNB building, seeking a meeting with Radev to verify whether IMF representatives had been invited to the country. Radev refused the meeting, describing their actions not as a genuine attempt at discussion but as a political maneuver directed at the wrong institution. He emphasized that such actions had no place in the BNB.
Radev also addressed the central bank’s review of the draft State Budget Law for 2025, stating that while the BNB would provide its comments to the Ministry of Finance, these would not be publicly disclosed. He noted that the exception made with the caretaker government’s draft was due to the inclusion of highly unacceptable provisions that directly impacted the BNB. However, he pointed out that such provisions were not present in the current draft.
Regarding the financial contributions of the BNB, Radev announced that the central bank would contribute nearly 800 million leva to the state budget for 2025. Of this amount, 550 million leva would come from the bank’s surplus revenues over expenditures, while the remainder would be sourced from interest payments to the budget.
He reiterated that the concerns over the IMF mission had already been clarified in statements from both the Ministry of Finance and the IMF itself, dismissing the allegations as unfounded. (Novinite)