Bulgaria has raised its economic growth forecast for 2019 to 3.6% from a previous estimate of 3.4%, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said on Saturday.

Bulgaria, a member of the European Union member which wants to adopt the euro currency, reported economic growth of 3.1% in 2018 and has previously forecast growth of 3.3% in 2020. "We expect the economy to achieve a growth of 3.6% this year, one of the best in the European Union," the minister said. Bulgaria, which has already pegged its lev currency to the euro, wants to join the euro zone's obligatory two-year "waiting room", the ERM-2 mechanism, in the spring of 2020.