site.btaMonthly Cost of Living for Four-Member Household Stands at Lv 2,301 in Third Quarter of 2017

Sofia, November 13 (BTA) - The monthly cost of living for a four-member household in Bulgaria, including two adults and two children, was 2,301 leva in the third quarter of 2017, or 575.28 leva per household member. This was the amount of money necessary for an average household to meet its basic needs such as food, housing, healthcare and education, the Institute for Social and Trade Unionist Studies (ISTUS) with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) said in a report which was unveiled by CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov and ISTUS expert Violeta Ivanova at a news conference on Monday.

In a household of two working parents and two children, each parent needed to earn a gross monthly wage of at least 1,474 leva in order to meet the cost of living in the third quarter of 2017, the report says. The average monthly wage in Bulgaria during the reporting period was 1,037 leva, which was about 30 per cent below the minimum necessary to meet the cost of living.

Some 75 per cent of Bulgarian households (5.4 million people) lived on incomes which were below the cost of living in the third quarter of 2017, Dimitrov said. Thirty per cent of households (2.165 million people) lived below the poverty line, which was 314 leva per household member.

In the capital Sofia, the monthly cost of living for a four-member household, including two adults and two children, was 3,003.32 leva in the third quarter of 2017, or 750.83 leva per household member. The level was 30.5 per cent higher than the nationwide average. In a Sofia household of two working parents and two children, each parent needed to earn a gross monthly wage of at least 1,924 leva in order to meet the cost of living. The average monthly wage in Sofia during the reporting period was 1,405 leva, which was 27 per cent lower than needed to meet the cost of living.

Nationwide, the increase in the cost of living was due mainly to the rise in food costs, which went up by 4.4 per cent, while non-food costs increased by 1.6 per cent. This means that inflation is gradually returning to the Bulgarian economy, which is a good sign, according to the CITUB.