site.btaTrade Union Sets Monthly Cost of Living for Family of Four at Lv 2,361.28

Sofia, August 2 (BTA) - A family of four with two dependent children needs an average of 2,361.28 leva monthly to pay the cost of food, home maintenance, healthcare, transport and recreation, according to the latest figures released by the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research (ISTUR) with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).

The data were presented on Thursday by CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov and ISTUR expert Violeta Ivanova.

The monthly per capita cost of living is 590.32 leva. It has increased by 36 leva since the beginning of the year.

Decent living requires an average net monthly pay of some 1,200 leva, but not more than 20 per cent of Bulgarian employees draw such wages. The average net pay in March was 321 leva lower, or some 27 per cent less than the average cost of living, Dimitrov said.

In Sofia, the cost of living for a family of four is 3,078 leva, and the per capita figure is 769.56 leva. The cost of living in the capital city is 30.3 per cent higher than the country average. If the household income consists of the wages of both parents, each one of them must draw a net average wage of not less than 1,539 leva monthly. Official data on labour remunerations in Sofia show an average monthly wage of 1,168 leva net or 1,505 leva gross, which is nearly 24.1 per cent lower than the actually disposable income to cover the per capita cost of living.

As many as 31.1 per cent of households in Bulgaria have a per capita income of up to 321 leva monthly, which makes a total of nearly 2,234,000. Another 44 per cent of households have a per capita income of 321 leva (the poverty line), and 29.4 per cent of households have a per capita income exceeding the cost of living.