Daily Brief – Bulgaria

Bulgaria

On Thursday last week Bulgaria formally adopted the Euro and for 6 months both EUR and the Lev will be legal tender in Bulgaria. In practice, Bulgaria already moved to the EUR in January 2025 when last week’s adoption was approved. Bulgaria, a country with 6.8 million people, is one of the EU’s poorest countries and becomes the 21st member of the Eurozone. There are still 6 EU members whose currencies are not part of the Eurozone: Poland’s Zloty; Denmark’s Krone; Hungary’s Forint; Romania’s Leu; Sweden’s Krona and the Czech Republic’s Koruna. There are some in Bulgaria that fear the loss of their sovereignty and also the likely uptick in inflation that will inevitably accompany the adoption of the EUR, but overall Bulgaria has been pushing to join the EUR since 2007 so joining the Eurozone is broadly welcomed by its citizens.

EUR/USD 1.1744.

Warren Buffet

In search of the magic dust that accounted for the phenomenal success that is WB, a study has been made of the early investor letters that he wrote for Berkshire Hathaway investors that formed the bedrock of that incredible success. Sadly, while almost impossible to challenge, the 5 basic tenets are hardly revolutionary: markets are impossible to forecast; a long term view is crucial; the market is tough to beat; good investment ideas are rare; lastly, be realistic about your strengths. No-one will deny WB his 70 year record, but those pearls of homespun common sense are ironic in the extreme in that year in year out the financial services industry attempts to challenge and debunk all of those WB tenets.

EUR/JPY 184.00.

2026 Christmas Markets

Now the dust has settled from the excesses of Christmas 2025 and the spending that accompanied it, one stand out is that Christmas Markets in Europe have become big business and are getting bigger year by year. The fastest growing markets in terms of revenues generated i.e. CAGR between 2022 and 2024 and therefore it must be deduced the ones with the highest quality offerings are: Frankfurt +45%, Cologne +35%, Strasbourg +30%, Krakow +25%, and Budapest +20%. Those are followed by Munich, Copenhagen, Lille, Nuremberg, and Basel. So, if wooden chalets, carved wooden goods and mulled wine are your thing, then get planning for December this year.

EUR/GBP 0.8705.

Gelsenkirchen

A mere 30 minutes drive to the north west of Dusseldorf, Germany where I spent 7 happy working years at the end of the last millennium lies Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine Westphalia. Gelsenkirchen is a city of 250,000 citizens and it is heartening in these days of cyber and crypto related scams to learn of a decent old fashioned crime caper: over the Christmas period thieves tunnelled through a thick concrete wall and into the secure vault of the town’s Sparkasse or Savings Bank where they ransacked safety deposit boxes and made off with what NRW’s finest are estimating to be double digit millions of cash and valuables. On various levels distressing for those robbed but the obvious difficulty when it comes to safety deposit boxes of the owners likely being uninsured having perhaps not having been fully forthright on the contents of their security boxes.

GBP/USD 1.3490.

Please Don’t Go

The first number 1 in the decade of the 1980’s came from KC and the Sunshine Band this day in 1980 which was their 5^th and final US chart topper. Despite the paucity of the lyrics the song was pretty good and has endured and…endured.

I love you
Yeah

Babe, I love you so
I want you to know
That I’m gonna miss your love
The minute you walk out that door

So please don’t go
Don’t go
Don’t go away
Please don’t go
Don’t go
I’m begging you to stay

If you leave, at least in my lifetime
I’ve had one dream come true
I was blessed to be loved
By someone as wonderful as you

So please don’t go
Don’t go

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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