In general, cooperation between Bulgaria and the ESCB now extends across most areas of central banking, from exchanging statistics to our annual bilateral policy dialogue. Moreover, since the signing of the Accession Treaty, the Bulgarian National Bank has participated as an observer in the ECB’s General Council and in meetings of ESCB committees and task forces.
In this way, Bulgaria is already contributing to the work of the ESCB. Besides these successes, there are naturally also challenges. Let me now turn to what are in my view the two most important economic challenges that still remain for Bulgaria. As I mentioned earlier, growing external imbalances are seen as a possible source for concern.