Over 75% of Bulgarians have Difficulty covering their Daily Expenses

An NSI survey shows that more than 75% of respondents had difficulty covering their daily expenses in the first three months of the year. The data is from an additional survey to the Monitoring of Household Budgets in order to carry out quarterly monitoring of changes in the living conditions of households. 5,682 persons aged 16 and over from 3,053 households were surveyed.

35.8% of respondents have certain difficulties in covering their daily expenses, 26.8% define covering their daily expenses as difficult, and 14.2% - as very difficult. The share of individuals who are struggling very hard increased by 0.6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2022.

19.7% of individuals can cover their daily expenses relatively easily, and only 3.5% do not experience any difficulties. In total, the share of persons without difficulties in the first quarter increased by 1.5 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2022.

31.2% of respondents limited their energy consumption during the heating season. 28.8% of people living in cities indicated that they could not afford sufficient energy consumption. In villages, the share of persons with energy consumption restrictions is 37.8% - 9 percentage points more than in cities.

In the first quarter of 2023, for 74.6% of individuals, their household income remained unchanged compared to the last 12 months. This share increased by 1.6 percentage points compared to the same quarter of 2022.

An increase in income was indicated by 20.1% of individuals, which is also 1.6 percentage points more compared to the first quarter of 2022, when 18.5% of individuals had an increase.

The share of persons who indicated a decrease in income for the last 12 months decreased in the first...