Nearly €1,500 Needed to Cover Monthly Living Costs for Three-Person Household in Bulgaria

A net monthly income of €1,498 is now required for two working parents with one child under the age of 14 to maintain a reasonable standard of living, according to the latest figures from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).

For a single working adult, the required net monthly income stands at €828.

The union's latest analysis of prices, incomes and changes over the past three months shows that the cost of supporting a family has risen by €86 since June last year, while the monthly expenses of a single working person have increased by €48.

CITUB's data also indicate that Bulgaria once again has the lowest minimum wage in the European Union, at €620, while the pace of price growth remains higher than in many other EU member states.

The analysis shows that prices have increased across all major spending categories, both on a quarterly and annual basis. For the first time, non-food goods have outpaced food products in terms of price growth. Among the sectors recording the sharpest increases are transport, healthcare, fruit and meat.

For the Kazakov family from Varna, the statistics reflect their everyday experience. Both parents are employed and have two children. They say that what once cost 300 leva to buy now costs roughly the same amount in euros.

Evgeniya and Velin Kazakov have children aged 8 and 12. Their household budget covers food, utility bills, loan repayments, as well as school lessons and extracurricular activities.

Velin Kazakov:

"Prices have gone up in absolutely every area. Fuel, utility bills, food. Household expenses are no different. Electricity is up, water is up, bills, mobile phones, television services, clothes, shoes – everything is slightly more expensive. Our shopping basket is almost identical every month. The only difference now is the price, which has almost doubled."

CITUB experts say his observations are consistent with the data. Bulgaria is now among the top five EU countries for the pace of price increases in essential goods and services. The country is seeing particularly sharp rises in the prices of milk, cooking oil and sugar compared with the rest of the European Union.

Over the past year, non-food goods have risen by 6.5%, while food prices have increased by 5.6%.

Violeta Ivanova, Deputy Director of CITUB's Institute for Social and Trade Union Research: "As always, the main raw materials are driving the increase in the funds households need. Natural gas prices have risen by 8.3% year-on-year and 9.3% over the past three months. Oil prices have also increased by almost 20%, which comes as no surprise. As producer prices continue to rise, this will be reflected in consumer prices in the coming months."

For the Kazakov family, this means every expense now requires much more careful consideration.

Velin Kazakov:"There used to be a sense of security. You didn't have to think so much about what to spend money on or what to give up in order to afford something else. And as the children grow older, so do their expenses. Both of them play sports, and the fees—well, just as we've seen elsewhere—have effectively gone from leva to euros, even though we were told that wouldn't happen."

Lyuboslav Kostov, Director of CITUB's Institute for Social and Trade Union Research, said Bulgaria now finds itself in a situation similar to the inflationary period of 2022, with households' real purchasing power failing to improve, while incomes remain among the lowest in the EU.

Lyuboslav Kostov: "For comparison, the difference between Bulgaria's minimum wage and Luxembourg's is four and a half times, or 450%. Now that we are part of the club of wealthy countries and have reached comparable price levels, our incomes need to catch up as well."

Asked what level of income would allow a family of four with two young children to live comfortably, Velin Kazakov replied:

"Around €2,500 per parent. I think that would currently be enough for everything to be normal and worry-free—provided prices don't keep rising, as they seem to every day."

For now, however, CITUB's experts say the trend remains unchanged: income growth in Bulgaria continues to lag well behind the rise in consumer prices.