New Bulgarian Government Abandons January 1, 2026 Eurozone Entry Bid

The Bulgarian government has effectively abandoned its plan to enter the eurozone on January 1, 2026, after Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova announced she will not request an extraordinary convergence report from the European Commission and European Central Bank. The country falls short of the inflation criterion by just 0.1 percentage points, with the current average annual inflation at 2.6% against the required 2.