site.btaFamily of Four Needs BGN 585.09 Per Household Member a Month for Normal Living - Trade Union

Sofia, February 19 (BTA) - The monthly per capita cost of living of a family of four with two dependent children was 585.09 leva in the first quarter of 2018, the Institute of Trade Union and Social Surveys with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) found. The data were announced Tuesday by the Institute's Director Lyuben Tomev and expert Violeta Ivanova.

The money is necessary to cover the basic needs of food, house maintenance, healthcare, education, transport and recreation by average Bulgarian standards.

The cost of living for a four-member family was 2,340 leva, up 0.7 per cent from the preceding quarter and 2.6 per cent higher year-on-year.

The cost of living of a family of four in Sofia was 3,055 leva. The average amount required per capita in such a family was 763.80 leva, which exceeded the country average by 30.5 per cent. For each of the two parents in a four-member family living in Sofia, the net average monthly wage should not be lower than 1,528 leva to provide the necessary conditions for life in the capital.

Official data about wages in Sofia for March 2018 report a net average monthly wage of 1,168 leva (gross 1,505 leva), which was nearly 23.5 per cent lower than the wage necessary to cover the per capita cost of living, if the source of income were only the salaries of the two parents.

A total of 73.3 per cent of the households had a total per capita income below the cost of living. However, the share of households living on incomes below the cost living dropped compared to 2008 when it was 88 per cent.

The share of households with incomes above the cost of living was 26.7 per cent, or 1.926 million people. The share was 23.3 per cent in 2017, so that the people living above the cost of living increased by 245,000 in the first quarter of 2018.

The share of households with total per capita income up to the poverty line (321 leva) was 26.2 per cent, or 1.926 million people. Compared to the like period in 2017, the number of such people decreased by 180,000.

The share of households with total per capita income ranging from the poverty line to the cost living was 47.1 per cent, or 3.398 million. Their number decreased by 65,000 people year on year.

In the first quarter of 2018 the total income continued to grow, by 9.8 per cent from the like period in 2017, reaching an average monthly amount of 482 leva per capita. The ratio between per capita total income and cost of living stood at 82.4 per cent, while in 2008 it was 63 per cent.

In 2017 the actual per capita total income increased 39.8 per cent compared to 2008, chiefly attributed to the sustainable and relatively high economic growth.

Tonev said that the Gross Domestic Product grew by about and slightly over 3.6 per cent each in the past three years, mainly driven by domestic demand. End consumption in 2017 increased by 4.8 per cent.

Despite the steady growth of the total income, it was still insufficient to cover the cost of living. The gap was more strongly felt in some regions where it was nearly 30 per cent in 2017. The only exception was the Southwestern Region where the total income almost reached the average cost of living. The current economic boom does not benefit everyone, and regional differences become more pronounced. For example, the average salary in Sofia continued to be twice higher than in Vidin, Northwestern Bulgaria, experts said.

Eurostat data show that the richest 20 per cent of the Bulgarian population received 8.2-fold more on average than the poorest 20 per cent in 2017, while a year earlier the difference was 7.7-fold and in 2012, 6.6-fold.

The CITUB noted that Bulgaria is the EU Member State with the lowest incomes, and at the same time its average levels of wages are more similar to those in the six Western Balkan countries wishing to join the EU than in the Union. Tonev commented that a more significant progress in salary convergence requires a consistent average annual nominal growth of 11 to 12 per cent, so as to achieve a salary level that is at least 60 per cent of the EU's by 2022.

The first quarter of 2018 saw positive trends on the labour market: employment grew by 62,600 new jobs, of which 23,200 were for people with primary and lower education. According to the CITUB, these data prove that the claims of the increase of the minimum wage (by 10.9 per cent in early 2018) influencing the drop in the employment level of low-qualified workers are ungrounded.

A key driver of the increase in the cost of living were food products, which appreciated by 0.9 per cent compared to the previous quarter. Non-food products appreciated by 0.4 per cent, with a more significant increase being observed in the prices of drinking water, by around 2 per cent, and of communications, by 3.9 per cent. The prices at public eating establishments increased by 0.8 per cent and those of cigarettes and alcohol, by 1 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively, because of the higher excise duties as of January 2018.

The expenses on food, home maintenance, and transport constituted two-thirds of all expenses in Bulgarian households' budgets.