As of January 31, 75% of the leva or 7.7 billion were withdrawn from circulation. This was announced at a briefing by Vladimir Ivanov, head of the Euro Coordination Center, quoted by bTV. 27 thousand operations were carried out at Bulgarian Posts for a total value of 50 million leva in 2025 and in January 2026 – 92 thousand operations for over 140 million leva.
„I must call on traders and various people who need it – not to accept post offices as banks, the banking system is combat-ready enough to handle all the traffic. In practice, post offices are engaged in something that is not their usual activity“, said Ivanov.
Monthly inflation is 0.7%, and annual - 3.6%. Ivanov also commented that there is a trend of price increases for yellow cheese (0.20 euros), cheese (0.15 euros), butter (0.15 euros).
Regarding the inspections: Last week, the CPC inspected 282 traders, violations were found in 10, and 7 acts were drawn up. Food products, parking lots, pharmacies, school canteens were checked - based on received signals. The most frequent signals are for incorrect currency conversion and unjustified price increases.
From 1.10.2025 to 28.01.2026, the NRA carried out over 6,000 inspections, over 350 acts of violation were drawn up. The sanctions amounted to over 192 thousand euros.
Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has registered 78 cases of counterfeit euros. In the last week of January, 12 new cases of putting counterfeit euro banknotes into circulation were identified. 9 banknotes with a denomination of 10 euros, 6 - of 20 euros, 4 - of of 100 euros and one banknote of 200 euros.
He recalled that since February 1, the only legal tender in our country is the euro. Levs can be exchanged free of charge until June in commercial banks and post offices, and in the BNB - indefinitely.
The dual price indication remains until August 8.