SOFIA (Reuters) - The global crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic will delay Bulgaria's bid to join the euro zone's "waiting room" and the European Union's banking union until 2021, central bank governor Dimitar Radev said on Monday.
The Balkan country, one of the poorest but also one of EU's least indebted members, had expected to join the two-year obligatory precursor to the euro zone, its Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-2) and the banking union in July.
"The timeline for joining the banking union and participation in the exchange rate mechanism are not realistic any more," Radev told private broadcaster Nova TV.
"That does not mean that work on that has to stop. If we continue to work as we have done until now... despite the very difficult and complex environment we are in, a delay until 2021 would not be fatal," he said.
Radev said Bulgaria should not delay its bid until a new entry cycle that may take more than 10 years, as the country did during the global financial crisis in 2009.
"We should not repeat this mistake, because the cost both for the people and the business would be way higher this time," he said.
The government and the central bank will present this week new measures to counter the coronavirus crisis that will include the option to take on new debt and allow borrowers to delay loan payments to banks..