15.02.2013

\"We are going to wait, probably a number of additional years, until the dust settles. Bulgaria also wants to join the euro, and we have multiple times said that. Do we have to pay for the bad policies of others already in the euro?\", said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov, speaking at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington yesterday and being cited by Bloomberg. He presented his views on how Bulgaria could achieve the average European levels of income during the on-going crisis in the euro area and given the competition of the neighbouring states. The Bulgarian Finance Minister commented in Washington on the dynamic situation in the currency union with the argument that \"if I start the path of entry, I don\'t know exactly what I\'m entering and we are basically going to wait\". EU finance ministers agreed to a plan in December that will place euro-area banks under a single supervisor, which Djankov said is a step in the right direction but is not enough.

Bulgaria has the lowest corporate and personal income tax rate in the European Union at 10 per cent, according to the finance minister. Djankov said he is concerned that the EU could adopt a policy of tax harmonization. \"We want to make sure that such ideas are not a part of the future set of institutions of the euro zone\", he said. Minister Djankov shared the latest data of the National Statistical Institute and Eurostat according to which Bulgaria\'s economy expanded for a 10th quarter as rising domestic demand offset a drop in exports to European nations struggling to emerge from the debt crisis. Gross domestic product rose 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012 from a year earlier, said Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov.