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Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

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Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#151

Post by isodev »

ReptileMan wrote: post #118
mrtksn wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also more of a generation thing though. The older people are nostalgic about the past and their youth and for a country that experienced 2 decades of very low birth rates that’s the 70s and 80s and those years are under the communist rule and very good years for Bulgaria as the country was experiencing economic boom from computers and electronics manufacturing. Also, under under the Communist rule supported by U…

>that Turks are the absolute evil Devshirme, Janissary corps, Batak massacre? There is huge blood debt that is owed to the Balkans and Armenia by the Ottoman Empire and their successor states.

So, you're describing war? The Russians are doing that to Ukraine right now too btw.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#152

Post by shakow »

isodev wrote: post #13
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...

And yet, Greece recovered to become a leading economy in the region. The propaganda is strong on the airwaves these days, just like in the US, one shouldn’t react to “facts” taken out of context. It seems (from here), support for Russia is somehow magically going down as Russia’s economy is having trouble paying for its “support” abroad.

> to become a leading economy in the region.

Leading compared to what, Romania and North Macedonia?

> support for Russia is somehow magically going down

I don't think support for Russia was ever notably involved in the whole clusterfuck regarding the Greek economy.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#153

Post by hgomersall »

marton78 wrote: post #102
Maxion wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why this comment is at the top of the HN post. Over the years I've seen a lot of missinformation on this topic that follows pretty much this exact train of thought. Why would countries join the EU and the Euro if it didn't benefit them? The baltics have all grown massively since the 90s when they became independent, and even though they all were on nice trajectories they still all decided to join the EU and…

> Why would countries join the EU and the Euro if it didn't benefit them? Joining benefits the country's elites, rather than its general populace -- and it's these elites who decide whether to join. Bulgaria joining will weaken the Euro, which benefits big, export-oriented economies such as Germany and France. This is how the Euro has always worked: the big economies dilute their trade surpluses at the cost of smalle…

And the strong countries export their unemployment to the weak countries.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#154

Post by Strom »

marton78 wrote: post #102
Maxion wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why this comment is at the top of the HN post. Over the years I've seen a lot of missinformation on this topic that follows pretty much this exact train of thought. Why would countries join the EU and the Euro if it didn't benefit them? The baltics have all grown massively since the 90s when they became independent, and even though they all were on nice trajectories they still all decided to join the EU and…

> Why would countries join the EU and the Euro if it didn't benefit them? Joining benefits the country's elites, rather than its general populace -- and it's these elites who decide whether to join. Bulgaria joining will weaken the Euro, which benefits big, export-oriented economies such as Germany and France. This is how the Euro has always worked: the big economies dilute their trade surpluses at the cost of smalle…

> Joining benefits the country's elites, rather than its general populace -- and it's these elites who decide whether to join.

That's bullshit. The decision to join is made via referendum.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#155

Post by lmm »

beAbU wrote: post #101
v5v3 wrote: post #50

On the one hand, countries with different economic strengths having the same currency managed centrally isn't ideal. But on the other hand, anything that reduces the domination of the US dollar is welcome.

> On the one hand, countries with different economic strengths having the same currency managed centrally isn't ideal. Isn't this kind of what the US is doing though?

The US has a much more integrated economy - businesses operate nationwide, employees routinely move across the country, and most economic policy is set centrally. And even then there are still downsides where e.g. interest rates set to suit the national economy exacerbate the problems of the rust belt.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#156

Post by szszrk »

petre wrote: post #116
Roark66 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polish here, very much against adopting the euro until our standard of living and growth rate matches Germany (no at least not for next 10 years). Why? Because the disadvantages far out weight the benefits for developing countries. The biggest issue is giving up one of the biggest instrument of control over the economy to a supra-national non-democratic organisation. Surely the monetary policy will follow what is bes…

You can't possibly compare Poland to Bulgaria with 1/8 Poland's GDP and 17% its population. For Bulgaria the Euro is completely fine, as the Lev has been pegged to the Deutche Mark and later the Euro for ages. It's exports are basically raw materials and grain. Most of the other stuff they produce is sold domestically. I think I've only seen Bulgarian sunflower oil, mineral water, ketchup and pasta in stores outside…

I find his view a bit polarized, but can't really see him comparing those countries at all.

But if we talk about Polish-Bulgarian exchanges: Those two countries actually have more or less the same numbers of Euro spent on import and export between each other. Bulgaria doubled export to Poland in just 2 years. Food products are important, but Bulgaria also exports to Poland many metals, mechanical and electrical devices, pharmaceuticals...

The biggest Polish import from Bulgaria in 2023 were almost a billion Euro on guns and ammunition. "Seeds and oily fruits" (whatever is the correct translation) were 20x less than that.

- https://www.gov.pl/web/bulgaria/informator-ekonomiczny4

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#158

Post by Cu3PO42 »

savolai wrote: post #142
Cu3PO42 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make things more complicated: it's not necessarily your home bank making the exchange, it can also be your card scheme (e.g. MasterCard/Visa/...). However, this is something you don't get a choice in. Your bank has an agreement with the scheme which foreign currencies are handled by whom. In any case, the rates used by the schemes are generally also pretty good.

Thanks. The lack of direct documentation/instructions or link in the terminals to official rules strikes me as horrible ux. You basically just have to be in the know or know who to ask?

It is horrible UX and one might argue intentional. The terminals are provided by the acquirer, i.e. the same party that stands to make extra money if you let them handle the currency exchange.

In Germany, there was a sliver of time where stores essentially taped a piece of paper to terminals with instructions and big red arrows to select a specific scheme because that would benefit the store (and not cost the consumer extra). It didn't really stick, however. I suspect because it was two extra button presses and the consumer wouldn't notice either way.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#159

Post by ingohelpinger »

petre wrote: post #146
ingohelpinger wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not true, almost the entire domestic production like veggies is exported and turkish, greece, dutch low quality stocks imported.

Yes, but it's still agri products sold for pennies. Compare that to motor vehicles, car parts, furniture and sanitary hardware that Poland exports. Also, I never ate Shopska salad made with Dutch tomatoes in Bulgaria, even in restaurants outside of Sofia. I can tell the difference, they almost always served the good ripe stuff that has taste, not the watery green variety or the huge Greek tomatoes with air gaps insid…

for penni's, because they are dumping the prices by importing crap, so the local producer cant sell his product on the domestic market.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#160

Post by mrtksn »

ReptileMan wrote: post #150
mrtksn wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me about an empire who conquered and held conquered land through asking politely. If you are able to come up with any, Ottomans certainly were not among those sure. That's why people don't like being invaded by empires. What do you think the first and the second Bulgarian Empires did exactly? BTW Just like the way Bulgarians may not recognize that the Bulgarian Empire had a military and killed people in order to…

Oh of course. This doesn't invalidates the bad blood. This doesn't mean that I would be sad if Turkey is humiliated and Hagia Sofia becomes once again orthodox church once again. And Istanbul is renamed to Constantinople.

The bad blood doesn't make sense, it was an age of the Empires and it was all business and Ottomans didn't do anything particularly different than everyone else did so I don't think that it is fair to say that Ottomans were evil. If anything, under Ottoman rule despite the atrocities minorities kept their language and culture unlike the people subjected to Western imperialism in Africa or Americas. One can even argue that Ottomans were relatively gentle.

Let's hope that we never go back to these days. Imperialism is evil and I'm sorry that Erdogan and other autocrats are trying to revive those days. I also agree that it was very offensive for the christians to turn Hagia Sofia into a mosque again(was a museum till recently) and I would love to see it becoming a church again.

Also, let's stop renaming stuff. If you like Istanbul you can move to Istanbul, if you want to own istanbul you can purchase a property in Istanbul.

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