site.btaBulgarians' Spending Keeps Outpacing Income in Q2 of 2023 - Statistics

In the second quarter of 2023, as well as since the beginning of last year, Bulgarians' expenditure has continued to grow faster than their income, figures released by the National Statistical Institute show. The only exception was the first quarter of 2023, when an income rise of 19.3% was insignificantly greater than the increase of spending.

The total income average per household member during the second quarter of 2023 averaged BGN 2,668, which was 20.9% more than in April-June 2022. The total expenditure per household member during the same period averaged BGN 2,379 BGN, up 21.3% from the like quarter of 2022.

Wages and salaries took up the largest share (57.3%) of the total household income in the second quarter of 2023. Pensions accounted for 30.4%, and self-employment for 6.2%. Compared to the second quarter of 2022, the share of income from wages and salaries increased by 3.2 percentage points, and income from self-employment by 1.9 percentage points. The share of income from pensions decreased by
4.0 percentage points.

At 31.0%, food and non-alcoholic beverages represented the largest proportion of total expenditure, followed by housing (16.4%), taxes and social insurance contributions (14.7%), and transport and communication (11.6%).

Broken down by expenditure item, taxes and social insurance registered the largest year-on-year increase in the second quarter of 2023, from BGN 251 to BGN 348 (38.5%), followed by clothing and footwear, from BGN 68 to BGN 85 (25.3%), and food and non-alcoholic beverages, from BGN 612 to BGN 738 (20.6%).