MSCI has confirmed that Bulgaria will be reclassified from Standalone Market status back to a Frontier Market (FM).
The proposal to return Bulgaria to a FM launched for consultation in 2024, “after enough Bulgarian securities met the ‘size and liquidity requirements’ for the classification”.
Originally, the decision was deferred following feedback from international institutional investors, said MSCI. These investors specifically cited limited market liquidity and the timing of the euro adoption.
However, conditions have now changed, with market participants confirmed to be in agreement that liquidity on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) has improved “meaningfully”.
In addition, Bulgaria’s transition to the euro, which completed on 1 January 2026, was successful and found to have no significant operational challenges.
Since January, the BSE’s trading and post-trading infrastructure has transitioned fully to euros denomination, with all settlements now occurring in the currency.
Bulgaria was initially relegated from Frontier Market to a Standalone Market back in August 2016 as part of the MSCI’s ‘market classification review’. The decision at the time was put down to the continued decline in the size and liquidity on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, and the Bulgarian equity market more broadly.
Earlier this year, the MSCI also announced that it was set to upgrade the Greek capital market from emerging market to developed market status, more than a decade after it was downgraded in June 2013. The move followed a consultation launched in January 2026.
Reclassification of both Greece and Bulgaria are set to be implemented in one step respectively, and come into effect in May 2027.