site.btaRampant Inflation's Impact Varies from Top Floor to Shop Floor, Statistics Show

The impact of record-high inflation on Bulgarian families in 2022 varied depending on whether the household head was a manager or senior employee or an ordinary worker, Trud writes in its weekend issue.

An analysis of data released by the National Statistical Institute finds that bosses families' increased their consumption of a number of staple foods, including bread, meat, meat products, fish, while and yellow cheese, milk and yogurt. At the same time, workers' families reduced their consumption of most of these products, especially meat.

Managers reduced their intake of beer and whisky and started drinking more wine and rakiya, while workers cut back on wine and rakiya at the expense of more beer. While bosses tried to smoke less and quit, workers started to smoke more compared to the previous year.

Managers tended to drink more whisky but ate less bread and potatoes than their staff. Bosses ate less dry sausages but more onions, fillets, pork, beef and chicken than their subordinates, according to the NSI figures.

Families in which the head is a manager or senior corporate employee smoke less than workers' families but drank slightly more. In addition, bosses ate more of some more expensive foods. Workers' families ate more bread, flour and pasta but less fresh meat and sausages and processed meat.  Managers' families also ate more fruit. Notably, bosses consumed more tropical fruits and apples than their staff, while ordinary workers ate more watermelons and melons than their bosses. Bosses also ate more tomatoes, cucumbers, fish, cheese, fresh and yogurt than their employees. For their part, workers ate more eggs, stewed fruits and drank more soft drinks than their bosses.

Still, leisure pursuits demonstrate the biggest difference between bosses' and workers' families. Managers' households spent nearly three times more on leisure and education than those headed by an ordinary worker.

At the same time, bosses' families paid the same cost of rent and utility bills as workers' households. Spending on health, too, was approximately the same for the two categories. Workers' health costs were even slightly higher, apparently because they get sick more often.

The families of bosses managed to save in banks more than three times as much as those of workers (BGN 3,719 a year against BGN 1,101). Bosses also took out far fewer consumer loans than workers because they simply withdrew from their bank account when they need small amounts. By contrast, bosses' families contracted more loans to invest in real estate. Therefore, the monthly payments they made on loans were larger than those of workers.