Bulgaria's household income rise outpaces spending growth in Q1

Each household member spent on average 2,524 levs ($1,402/1,290 euro) in January-March, while their income came in at 2,840 levs, NSI said in a quarterly report.

The relative share of income from wages and salaries in the review period rose to 56.2% from 53.6% a year earlier and was the largest overall contributor.

Pensions made up 31.4% of household income, having lowered their share by 4.4 percentage points (pp) compared to the prior-year quarter. Self-employment grew by 1.4 pp on the year, forming 5.7% of total income.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages held the greatest share of total first-quarter expenditure, or 29.8%, down from 31.3% in the like period of 2023.

It was followed by the share of spending on housing, which slipped to 17.1% from 17.8%. Taxes and social insurance contributions accounted for 14.9% of total household expenditure, up from 13.9%, while the share of transport and communication costs edged down to 11.2% from 11.5%.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)