Starting on 1 January 2026, Bulgaria will replace the lev with the euro as its national currency.
The Balkan country of 6.5 million people joined the EU in 2007 and formally began the process of joining the eurozone in 2018.
Brussels and Sofia hope that joining the eurozone will boost the country’s economy and strengthen its integration into the European Union.
“The bigger effect is the long-term effect, basically boosting confidence when it comes to the currency, to the purchasing power of the currency, the confidence of foreign investors, people who buy Bulgarian debt, but also people who invest in the country, in different sectors,” Petar Ganev, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Market Economics told Euronews.
“Credit agencies deduct from our credit rating because of the currency board,” Ganev explained.
“They say that our debt is in a foreign currency, which is the euro (…) They say, if you have foreign debt, in a different currency, which is not yours, then we deduct from your credit rating. So we have a deduction of our credit rating for 28 years, which now will be gone.”
In addition, he believes that joining the eurozone will only marginally increase inflation.
“It’s not the main factor. The main factor is the consumption, which is supported by inflationary budget and by record high credits, especially for new homes,” he said.
