In North Macedonia, they no longer accept the Bulgarian lev as a means of payment when shopping at retail outlets, in restaurants, on the flea market, taxi drivers. Buying with euros is possible, but only with a card, writes Nova TV.
"You don't want levs anymore, so do we? You can't do it with levs", a saleswoman at a minimarket in Kriva Palanka is categorical. In a shopping center in Kumanovo, they also don't allow you to pay with levs - it's been like that for three days. You can't pay cash with euros because they can't give you the change back - they don't have euro banknotes or cents.
Denars, the currency of North Macedonia, are calculated at 31.44 denars for one lev. After which, the conversion into euros takes place at the officially accepted exchange rate in Bulgarian banks. A lot of calculation is required.
So - in addition to other benefits and effects, with the introduction of the euro in our country, the decades-long so-called "suitcase trade" across the border also disappears. Incidentally, it died out years ago, when goods from beyond Deve Bair, in North Macedonia, were already cheaper than in Kyustendil.
Now, Kyustendil residents travel to stores in Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka to shop cheaper or reserve seats in restaurants above Kriva Palanka, Rankovtsi, Etnoselo, etc. There, hundreds of Bulgarians celebrated the New Year, and as they were returning home last night, at the "Gueshevo" border checkpoint and the Macedonian "Deve Bair" a queue of waiting cars and buses forms for over a kilometer.