site.btaNational Statistical Institute Deputy Chair: Household Electricity Use Rises in 2024 and 2025

Household electricity consumption increased in 2024 and 2025, National Statistical Institute (NSI) Deputy Chair Svilen Kolev told the National Assembly on Tuesday.

At a hearing requested by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning, Kolev said electricity price changes followed decisions by the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission and were reflected in the consumer price index amid rising prices for some goods and services and unusually high bills for some customers.

The latest data that the NSI released as a preliminary flash estimate of inflation at the start of February showed that the overall price level of basic goods and services slowed its growth to 3.6% year-on-year, while month-to-month it increased by 0.7%, Kolev said. He added that this was preliminary information for January this year compared with December last year.

For the main group of food and non-alcoholic beverages, there was a change that slowed the growth rate to 4% year-on-year; this is the group with the greatest weight in the consumer price index and the basket, Kolev said. He added that in the summer months of last year the growth rate slowed to around 7.3% to 7.4% year-on-year.

Kolev said he did not see a sharp change in prices in large retail chains and outlets in big cities. He added that in smaller settlements the prices of basic products were monitored in local shops, markets and outlets.

Over a three-year period, accumulated inflation was around 12%, and over five years it was a little over 40%, which in itself is not a low figure, Kolev said. He added that before the NSI’s data were released officially, they were verified by Eurostat and checked.

Kolev said that a year and a half ago, in an attempt to determine whether a price change in the consumer price index could be expected as a result of the switch from the lev to the euro, the NSI expected such a development. For the first month, it turned out that such a change was within 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, much lower than the preliminary expectations, Kolev said.