Bulgaria's household spending, income grow 18% y/y in Q4

Each household member spent on average 2,668 levs ($1,465/1,364 euro) in October-December, while their income amounted to 2,866 levs, NSI said in a quarterly report.

The relative share of income from wages and salaries in the review period grew to 54.9% from 52.2% a year earlier and was the largest overall contributor.

Pensions made up 31.3% of household income, lowering their share by 4.3 percentage points (pp) compared to the prior-year quarter. Self-employment rose by 1.3 pp in annual terms, forming 5.9% of total income.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages held the biggest share of total fourth-quarter expenditure, or 29.9%, down from 31.2% in the like period of 2022.

They were followed by the share of spending on housing, which fell to 16.1% from 17.7%. Taxes and social insurance contributions accounted for 13.1% of total household expenditure, up from 11.8%, whereas the share of transport and communication costs edged up by 0.3 pp to 11.5%.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)