Head of Bulgaria’s consumer protection body: Transition to euro going better than expected

Bulgaria’s transition to the euro is going better than expected, and the market is stable and calm, the head of the Consumer Protection Commission, Alexander Kolyachev, told Parliament on February 11.

Kolyachev, as well as the heads of the Competition Protection Commission and of the National Statistical Institute were summoned to Parliament for a hearing on speculative increases in the prices of some goods and services and what are said to be unusually high electricity bills of some customers.

Bulgaria joined the euro zone on January 1 2026 and after a month-long temporary transition period in which the lev and euro both were legal tender, as of February 1 the euro is the sole legal tender in Bulgaria.

Kolyachev told Parliament that since the beginning of the euro introduction period, his commission had carried out nearly 7000 inspections of businesses, of which about one in 10 resulted in violations being identified.

The commission has introduced a system for daily monitoring of prices of about 1500 products in large chains and pharmacies.

Kolyachev said that the results show that the market is stable and the transition to the euro is proceeding smoothly.

“The market is calm, stable, and the transition to the new currency is going even better than expected,” he said.

In line with the Euro Adoption Act, a special website had been created, on which all large food retailers and a large part of the pharmacy chain, are obliged to provide the prices of each specific product that the commission has indicated, about 1500 products, on a daily basis, Kolyachev said.

“From an institutional point of view, we have no problems with the introduction of the euro and with increases in the prices of basic goods,” he said.

According to the head of the Competition Protection Commission, Rosen Karadimov, entire industries in Bulgaria are at risk due to a decline in production and a rise in imports.

Karadimov said that dialogue with large retail chains had led to frozen and reduced prices, as well as promotional campaigns beneficial to consumers.

“Without action by the executive and legislative branches, these problems will not be solved. For the first time, the entire agricultural sector – milk, food, the entire processing and manufacturing sectors – stood behind the Commission. For the first time, they saw the state actually behind them.”

Karadimov said that there was a difference in the purchasing power of people in different parts of the country and said that the big problem actually lies in the producers, which are almost on the verge of a crisis, giving large discounts and selling part of their production at the very cost of the products.

Svilen Kolev, deputy head of the National Statistical Institute, told Parliament: “We really do not observe a sharp change in price changes in large retail chains”.

Kolev said that the institute’s flash estimate for inflation in January showed it slowing to 3.6 per cent on an annual basis and 0.7 per cent on a monthly basis.

(Photo: European Commission Audiovisual Service)