Bulgarian Parliament to Elect New Central Bank Governor on July 14

The Bulgarian Parliament will elect the new governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) on July 14.

Bulgarian MPs decided on Friday to hold the hearing of the four candidates at an extraordinary sitting on July 14, daily Dnevnik reports.

The resignation of incumbent governor Ivan Iskrov, which had been announced in June, entered into force on Friday.

The parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee held hearings of the four candidates on Thursday.

The favourite for the position is Dimitar Radev, an experienced economist at the International Monerary Fund (IMF), who is the nominee of the main ruling party GERB.

All the remaining three parties participating in the coalition government or supporting the cabinet have also submitted their nominations.

The Reformist Bloc (RB), the junior coalition partner, nominated Biser Manolov, who is a former chief of the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF).

The rector of the University of finance, business and entrepreneurship Grigorii Vazov is the candidate of the Patriotic Front (PF), while the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) nominated the former BNB and IMF expert Viktor Yotsov.