{"id":485781,"date":"2026-01-01T23:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/485781\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:17:14","slug":"bulgaria-adopts-euro-amid-celebration-and-anxiety-over-inflation-business-and-economy-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/485781\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria adopts euro amid celebration and anxiety over inflation | Business and Economy News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Move comes nearly two decades after the Balkan country entered the EU as hope for stability clashes with fear of rising prices.<\/p>\n

Published On 1 Jan 20261 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

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Bulgaria has officially adopted the euro, becoming the 21st country<\/a> to join the single currency nearly two decades after entering the European Union, a move that has led to both celebration and anxiety.<\/p>\n

At midnight on Wednesday (22:00 GMT), the Balkan country abandoned the lev, its national currency since the late 19th century.<\/p>\n

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Images of Bulgarian euro coins lit up the central bank\u2019s headquarters in Sofia as crowds gathered in freezing temperatures to mark the new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI warmly welcome Bulgaria to the euro family,\u201d said Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank.<\/p>\n

Some residents welcomed the change with optimism. \u201cGreat! It works!\u201d said Dimitar, 43, speaking to The Associated Press after withdrawing 100 euros from a cash machine shortly after midnight.<\/p>\n

Successive Bulgarian governments have backed euro adoption, arguing it would strengthen the country\u2019s fragile economy, anchor it more firmly within Western institutions and shield it from what officials describe as Russian influence<\/a>. Bulgaria, with a population of about 6.4 million, remains the poorest member of the EU.<\/p>\n

\"CommutersCommuters walk past an advertisement promoting Bulgaria\u2019s entry into the eurozone in Sofia\u2019s subway on December 31, 2025, ahead of the country\u2019s adoption of the euro on January 1, 2026 [Nikolay Doychinov\/AFP]Divided public<\/p>\n

Yet public opinion has long remained split<\/a>. Many Bulgarians fear the euro will drive up prices while wages stagnate, worsening living standards in a country already struggling with political instability.<\/p>\n

In a televised address before midnight, President Rumen Radev described the euro as the \u201cfinal step\u201d in Bulgaria\u2019s integration into the EU.<\/p>\n

However, he criticised the absence of a public referendum on the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis refusal was one of the dramatic symptoms of the deep divide between the political class and the people, confirmed by mass demonstrations across the country,\u201d Radev said.<\/p>\n

Bulgaria recently plunged into further uncertainty after anticorruption protests toppled<\/a> a conservative-led government in December, pushing the country towards its eighth election in five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are afraid that prices will rise, while salaries will remain the same,\u201d a woman in her 40s told the AFP news agency in Sofia.<\/p>\n

At city markets, vendors listed prices in both levs and euros. Not everyone was worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole of Europe has managed with the euro, we\u2019ll manage too,\u201d retiree Vlad said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Move comes nearly two decades after the Balkan country entered the EU as hope for stability clashes with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":485782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[523,64,438,79,440,8697,266,50,5622,80,7237,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-485781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-bulgaria","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-business-and-economy","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-inflation","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-opinions","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-protests","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115822398409079881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}