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Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

ecb.europa.eu

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Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#41

Post by decimalenough »

jmyeet wrote: post #2

This will likely come with a one-time significant increase in inflation, at least based on other European countries. When Germany converted to the Euro, the conversion rate was (IIRC) about ~2 DM to the Euro but from what I recall, a lot of everyday things went from costing 7 DM to 7 euro, effectively doubling in price. IIRC France was similar (ie ~6.5 francs to the Euro but 10 Francs went to 3 euro, etc). I've tried…

Missing piece of info: the official conversion rate is 1.95583 per euro. It will be extremely tempting for merchants to use 2:1 instead.

The situation was literally identical in Germany, where the official rate was also precisely 1.95583 to the euro (because the lev used to be tied to the DM at 1:1), but not so in most other European countries.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#42

Post by oaiey »

carabiner wrote: post #39
decimalenough wrote: post #22

Credit where credit is due: the EU gets a lot of flack for being bureaucratic, hidebound, sclerotic, whatever, but the single currency has been a success and it's still expanding, 26 years after its creation. Also, the addition of Bulgaria means it's almost possible to travel from Spain to Greece entirely through the Eurozone, with only a thin sliver of Serbia or Macedonia in the way. (Assuming we include Montenegro…

The crazy thing is that it was US pressure on Europe in the late '90s that led to adoption of the euro.

I am not aware of this. Can you give us a hint what that was?

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#43

Post by ingohelpinger »

the Euro has lost almost half of its purchasing power since its creation. bulgarians want the Euro so much, that they have to run tv ads, "we will become more wealthy by introducing the Euro", what? how will that happen, if you need more money to buy same or less products/services? lmao

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#44

Post by oaiey »

mynameisbob wrote: post #9
jmyeet wrote: post #2

This will likely come with a one-time significant increase in inflation, at least based on other European countries. When Germany converted to the Euro, the conversion rate was (IIRC) about ~2 DM to the Euro but from what I recall, a lot of everyday things went from costing 7 DM to 7 euro, effectively doubling in price. IIRC France was similar (ie ~6.5 francs to the Euro but 10 Francs went to 3 euro, etc). I've tried…

I was in Belgium the week the Belgian franc converted to Euros. I saw no price changes other than rounding up or down to the nearest Euro equivalent price. If memory serves some stores showed prices in both denominations for a while which would not have allowed for stealth inflation to happen. The currencies were pegged for a period before then so other than niche cases there really weren’t opportunities for massive…

Did not happen in Germany either. Inflation and price hikes came but later. And had nothing to do with currency system but were overdue price adjustments or greed of companies.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#45

Post by ingohelpinger »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #33
mc32 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the experience of Greece not too far back and the austerity imposed by Germany is not quite forgotten. Varoufakis[1] can attest to its severity. The Greeks voted against it but Germany imposed its will. [1] https://jacobin.com/2025/07/yanis-varoufakis-on-the-legacy-o...

This is nonsense. Not mentioned is that Greece has borrowed excessively and had defaulted on its loans. A bailout was organized by the EU and IMF with terms that Greece had every opportunity to reject. No one forced anything on Greece. The referendum was not binding and political theater for the government of the time. That Greece accepted the terms reflected the reality that the alternative was much worse and would…

100% true.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#46

Post by blahedo »

aopwiejfpoieajf wrote: post #14
dotancohen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as the Mark and the Franc were.

Surely they were not pegged for decades given that the Euro was introduced in 1998 and they transitioned fully in 2002?

It was pegged originally to the Deutschmark. If you look up a currency table the historic DEM has the exact same conversion rate as the lev will have.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#47

Post by decimalenough »

nine_k wrote: post #34
jmyeet wrote: post #2

This will likely come with a one-time significant increase in inflation, at least based on other European countries. When Germany converted to the Euro, the conversion rate was (IIRC) about ~2 DM to the Euro but from what I recall, a lot of everyday things went from costing 7 DM to 7 euro, effectively doubling in price. IIRC France was similar (ie ~6.5 francs to the Euro but 10 Francs went to 3 euro, etc). I've tried…

Wasn't the lev pinned to euro for years, at the stable rate of 1 lev = 0.5 euro? Why the switching to euro would affect inflation much?

It's pinned at 1.95583 to the euro, not 2. If a merchant has a product that sells for 2 lev today, and they sell it for 1 euro tomorrow, they just increased the price by a bit over 2%.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#48

Post by arlort »

petesergeant wrote: post #11
jmyeet wrote: post #2

This will likely come with a one-time significant increase in inflation, at least based on other European countries. When Germany converted to the Euro, the conversion rate was (IIRC) about ~2 DM to the Euro but from what I recall, a lot of everyday things went from costing 7 DM to 7 euro, effectively doubling in price. IIRC France was similar (ie ~6.5 francs to the Euro but 10 Francs went to 3 euro, etc). I've tried…

> I've tried searching for any studies ... but from what I recall I mean if you've tried to find evidence and can't, this feels a lot like you're simply misremembering?

It's something that is pretty much taken as gospel in many countries that that happened

I've only checked the data for Italy but real inflation stayed pretty much constant while perceived inflation absolutely blew out of proportion.

So essentially people noticed some minority of shops raising their prices talking advantage of the little confusion around the exchange rate and never shut up about it since

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#49

Post by ingohelpinger »

jmyeet wrote: post #2

This will likely come with a one-time significant increase in inflation, at least based on other European countries. When Germany converted to the Euro, the conversion rate was (IIRC) about ~2 DM to the Euro but from what I recall, a lot of everyday things went from costing 7 DM to 7 euro, effectively doubling in price. IIRC France was similar (ie ~6.5 francs to the Euro but 10 Francs went to 3 euro, etc). I've tried…

exactly, Bulgarian here, born in Germany in 1988, so I lived with the DM and then experienced the Euro throughout my entire life, until 2023 when I decided to go back to BG. The Euro will make BG a debt slave on Germanys and France terms. Watch critical infrastructure being sold to China or who knows, just like Greece had to do it.
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