The Bulgarian National Bank has said it will put forward a possible approach to the accession of the country into the single currency area.

BNB Governor Dimitar Radev has announced, in a publication on the bulletin of the Association of Bulgarian Commercial Banks, that approahes, stages and possibly even a timetable will be set out after a stress test of the banking system and an analysis of the financial system prepared by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been carried out.

He has reiterated that Bulgaria is aspiring to join the Eurozone and the BNB will take active part in the process.

Sofia has declared commitment to joining the single currency area. The first step it is yet to take is the exchange rate mechanism II (ERM II), a regime of fixed exchange rates in which all EU countries wishing to adopt the euro as their currency must participate. ERM II is, in principle, considered to be a goal for the next several years.