A New Era: Bulgaria Joins the Euro Area and Replaces the Lev with the Euro

From today, January 1, goods and services in Bulgaria can be paid for in euros as well as in levs (BGN). Prices for all products must be displayed in both currencies until 8 August this year. However, the lev and the euro will be accepted side by side for just one month, until 31 January. After that date, despite prices continuing to be shown in both currencies, payments will be possible only in euros.

Under the requirements of the Law on the Introduction of the Euro, even when customers pay in levs, traders will be obliged from tomorrow to give change in euros. An exception will apply only if they do not have euros available. In the first days of the year, there may be some disruption to card payments due to the currency changeover, but banks expect their systems to be fully reset by 3 January.

Bulgaria is joining the eurozone with a fixed exchange rate of 1.95583 levs to one euro. The rate is not arbitrary: it is the same rate at which the German mark was converted into the euro. Twenty-eight years ago, Bulgaria entered a currency board arrangement, initially pegging the lev to the mark at a rate of 1,000 levs to one mark, later adjusted to one-to-one following redenomination.

At the fixed rate, levs will be exchanged into euros free of charge for the first six months at commercial banks and post offices in towns and villages without credit institutions. At the Bulgarian National Bank, currency exchange will remain free of charge with no time limit.

Bulgaria becomes the 21st member of the euro area. Bulgarian euro coins have equal status with all other euro coins and are legal tender in every euro area country.