“Everything is very expensive, how can we afford living”: At a market in Vidin – what producers, traders and customers think about prices

Annual inflation of 6.8% was reported by the National Statistical Institute at the end of April. How are people coping with rising prices in Vidin (Northwestern Bulgaria), where incomes are among the lowest in the country?

At the Saturday market in Vidin, traders and customers discuss prices.

“There is nothing cheap this year. Everything is expensive. We also want it to be cheap, but it isn’t.”

“Yes, but pensions are not being increased.”

For people, rising prices are not measured in percentages – the increase is felt directly in their wallets.

Dobromira Dimcheva: “It is absolutely felt in the pocket of the small, ordinary consumer.”

Zoya Kostadinova: “Prices are much higher. Everything is expensive – tomatoes, bread. Everything is expensive.”

Ognian Despotov: “Prices are high. It is not like before. It feels as if the lev has become the euro. Prices of tomatoes, cucumbers – everything has gone up.”

Nevena Pekova: “Overall, they are high. One-to-one – euro and lev. Fruits, vegetables – everything. There are no exceptions. Chains have also become much more expensive. What is on promotion is cheaper.”

Kosta Kalchev: “Leaving fruit aside, since last year was not a good season and they were not so expensive, but these vegetables have really become much more expensive – tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes.”

“They are rising very fast. Every day they increase. Wages and pensions remain the same.”

“Up. Can’t you see that living is no longer possible?”

People are trying to find explanations for the causes.

Dobromira Dimcheva: “Inflation is perhaps an economic factor driven and justified by the economic situation not only in Bulgaria, but possibly also on a global scale. However, I am asking myself another question – whether there is also speculation.”

Nevena Pekova: “People continue to buy, considering that consumption has increased because of high prices in Bulgaria. I don’t know – Bulgarians are a strange breed. The more expensive things get, the more they shop. Whether it is fear of tomorrow – I don’t know.”

People are looking for ways to cope with continuously rising prices.

Ognian Despotov: “You stop buying some things and buy others. You take only what is most necessary.”

Kosta Kalchev: “I have literally stopped buying, to be honest. I simply do not buy.”

“We do not buy. We deprive ourselves of everything, that’s it. My pension is 400 euros.”

At the market, traders say their profit is minimal and that they too are trying to survive.

“We sell for pennies because pensions are not enough. We sell just to survive, to earn a few levs. I have never sold tomatoes for three and a half euros. That’s nearly 7 leva. It’s expensive, but there is no choice. Everyone takes one or two tomatoes, a few cucumbers or some cabbage. I can see it’s expensive, but we also have no way of buying it cheaper. We buy from Craiova. They bring it from somewhere.”

Valentin Ivanov offers his own produce, while his family buys from shops only what they cannot produce themselves.

Valentin Ivanov, producer: “We are barely coping because everything is expensive – fertiliser, water, electricity. What can we do – if we can earn something from here. The problem is that when things are expensive, people don’t have money to buy, and it gets even worse. Thank God, most of us don’t shop much because we have home production. I don’t know these people here who have to buy everything. In the villages we are more or less like this.”

From the government, people expect measures, mainly against price speculation.

Ognian Despotov: “The state has regulations, there are things it can do. There should be control. There is no control anywhere, at any level. It all starts from the top. This one is connected to that one, that one to someone else.”

Dobromira Dimcheva: “Measures should be announced, people should expect solutions, and then it turns out the problem is something else entirely.”

– BNT: And what is it?

– “Speculation, in my opinion.”

For people, inflation is not an economic term but everyday reality – more bills and increasingly difficult choices about what stays in the basket. And as prices continue to rise, the hope is that one day incomes will catch up.