site.btaCouncil of Ministers Approves Additional Staff Costs under National Statistical Institute Budget

The Council of Ministers adopted a Decree approving additional staff costs under the budget of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) for 2024 in the amount of BGN 6,083,300. This will increase the costs of the functional area "Impartial, objective, timely and accurate information on the State of the Republic of Bulgaria".

This allocation became possible after the restructuring NSI activities.

The provision of the necessary financial and human resources is a major factor for improving the production process, and thus also for improving the quality of official statistics in the country, stressed an Eurostat report on peer review of national statistical systems published on November 11 2022. The current measure to increase the financial security of NSI is part of the commitment made by the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria to ensure trust in statistics. The document related to trust in statistics was adopted pursuant to Art. 11 of Regulation 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Statistics. Such documents are adopted by all EU member states.

The official statistics produced by NSI are the basis for the development of public policies and for making informed management decisions, and the National Statistical Institute has been a respected partner of Eurostat in the production of European statistics for 15 years. In recent years, the volume and quality requirements of statistical research have increased, information systems are widely used, and classical statistical methods are giving way to interdisciplinary ones. This is related to a shortage of expert statisticians. The current increase in personnel costs will contribute to bringing the average salary in NSI closer to the average for the state administration, which will make it possible to attract specialists who will help NSI continue to produce objective and qualitative statistical information for the benefit of society.