site.btaTrade Union Analysis Says Well-being of People in Bulgaria Is Not Improving

A Podkrepa Confederation of Labour analysis of Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) data on deposits in Bulgaria shows that the well-being of people in the country is not improving. In a press release, the trade union says that according to BNB, nearly 49% of households have average deposits of some BGN 170 as of December 2023. The total amount of these deposits accounts for just 0.9% of savings in leva.

Podkrepa’s chief economist Ananas Katsarchev argued that these data give grounds to assume that these people are impoverished, a large number are below the poverty line, cannot save, and cannot have a normal lifestyle. "Children are particularly at risk in these households," Katsarchev added.

Some 10% of households have an average of around BGN 1,666 in their deposit accounts. These people can maintain "some sort of lifestyle", to use Katsarchev's words, though the average amount is below and close to the subsistence level for a person per month, not for a household.

Podkrepa said that the two groups account for about 60% of households, and this matches the data according to which two-thirds of households live below the subsistence level. This means that household income and the standard of living of the overwhelming majority of the population of Bulgaria are unenviable, the trade union concludes.

It insists that an adequate subsistence level and poverty line must be regulated to serve as a basis for developing effective policies to combat poverty, social inequalities, and exclusion through social assistance programmes, a guaranteed decent minimum wage, demographic policies and tax policy including a non-taxable income equal to the subsistence level.