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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

#61

Post by mrtksn »

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…

Soon all the prices will be listed in both of the currencies and they will be kept as that for another six months after the adoption.

The country already experienced quite a bit of inflation last years, regardless of not being in the euro. I don’t see why the change of the currency that is already pegged to euro since the creation of Euro will cause any inflation beyond the rounding and the rounding is for 1:1.95583 and that often provides rounding sown incentive as 4.99 becoming 2.04 and 4.49 becoming 2.2957

A more realistic concern can be that Bulgaria might start borrowing irresponsibly. Currently Bulgaria's debt to GDP is just around %22, which is very low.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#62

Post by ako »

ingohelpinger wrote: post #43

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

Same for USD and other major currencies, as most countries have inflation around 2%. Only currency that has done significantly better is the swiss frank.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#63

Post by darkhorn »

blahedo wrote: post #52

Random observation: I remember seeing the second round of euro bills and momentarily thinking, "EBPO? cool, but why did they add Cyrillic to the design?" It was specifically for Bulgaria, the only EU country to use the Cyrillic alphabet. Eurozone membership was a distant thought at that point, but they knew they'd be in eventually. Now's the time!

Because they wrote ΕΥΡΩ specifically only for Greece, the only country to use Greek alphabet.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#64

Post by Scoundreller »

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…

> I saw no price changes other than rounding up or down to the nearest Euro equivalent price

Dunno about Belgium but what I notice in French supermarkets is that prices aren’t rounded at all. 10k SKUs will have 10k different prices (ish).

Plain frozen pizza? 4,62 EUR.

Same with pepperoni? 4,92 EUR

Domestic 500mL beer? 1,14 EUR

Fancier beer? 1,81 EUR

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#65

Post by oaiey »

coliveira wrote: post #6
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…

The Euro expansion is the mechanism the EU has to export inflation to other countries, similar to the way the US exports inflation with dollar trading across the world. When the easy expansion stops, this is when the debasement will start to occur. The US is already at this point, very soon the dollar will be less valuable as less trading is happening in USD.

I think there are other motives otherwise Bulgaria would say, no thank you. IMHO, the primary motivation is to establish/strengthen the single market and the economic cohesion of the EU. That inflation is a side effect of this (and part of the stabilization) might be the case.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#66

Post by lawn »

flimflamm wrote: post #57
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…

Except if you are a Finnish person who lives right next to Sweden (SEK) and Norway (NOK) who are not using Euro (and Russia but that's a different story).

I live in Sweden at the border of Finland and there's very little issues with crossing the border and paying in another currency.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#67

Post by Gare »

darkhorn wrote: post #63
blahedo wrote: post #52

Random observation: I remember seeing the second round of euro bills and momentarily thinking, "EBPO? cool, but why did they add Cyrillic to the design?" It was specifically for Bulgaria, the only EU country to use the Cyrillic alphabet. Eurozone membership was a distant thought at that point, but they knew they'd be in eventually. Now's the time!

Because they wrote ΕΥΡΩ specifically only for Greece, the only country to use Greek alphabet.

Technically, 2 EU countries: Greece and Cyprus.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#68

Post by oaiey »

arlort wrote: post #48
petesergeant wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Same in Germany. I remember the times, was a poor student. Restaurants took the opportunity to change prices, which everyone felt but did not influence the inflation. And that price hikes was overdue (at least that was the statements back then ... Which I found rationale)

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#70

Post by smallstepforman »

If abandoning your own currency and adopting Euros was such a big deal, the UK would have done it decades ago (while it was still a part of the EU).

This benefits the bigger economies, at the expense of the smaller economies. Any fiscal policy is dictated by the bigger countries, and with identical currencies, the only policy left for Bulgarians is to cut wages in public sector. This will impact local economy, and ripple through their society becoming poorer. And the bigger foreign corporations can ransack the place. Brilliant.

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