site.btaIncome Growth in Bulgaria Continues to Outpace Expenditure Growth in Q1 of 2025 Y/Y, NSI Data

The quarterly average total income per person in a household in Q1 of 2025 was BGN 3,271, increasing by 15.2% compared to the same period of 2024, while expenditure was up by 13.3%, reaching BGN 2,861, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said Friday.

A reference in the NSI shows that in the same quarter of 2024 the income was BGN 2,840 with a growth of 18.6% from the same period in 2023, and the expenditure was BGN 2,524 or 17.4% more compared to Q1 of 2023.

In the structure of total income in the first quarter of the year, the highest relative share was income from wages (56.4%), followed by income from pensions (31.5%) and self-employment (7%). Compared to the first quarter of 2024, the relative share of self-employment income increased by 1.3 percentage points, wage income by 0.2 p.p. and pension income by 0.1 p.p.

In Q1 of 2024, the income structure was similar and with minimal deviations in the percentage share, with a more sensitive difference observed in self-employment, which had a share of 5.7%. The relative share of wage income increased by 2.6 p.p., that of self-employment income by 1.4 p.p., and the share of pension income declined by 4.4 p.p.

In the first quarter of 2025, the expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages (30% from 29.8% in Q1 of 2024) accounted for the largest share in the total expenditure, followed by housing (16.6% from 17.1%), taxes and social security (15.5% from 14.9% ), and transport and communications (11.6% from 11.2% in Q1 of 2024). 

Among the products whose consumption increased in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, fruit had the largest increase, from 12.4 to 12.9 kg. The largest decrease was in the consumption of bread and pasta, from 18 to 16.9 kg. The consumption of eggs, mature beans and sugar remained unchanged.

Over the same period of 2024, the largest increases in consumption were in vegetables, from 13.4 to 14.3 kg, meat, from 9.2 to 10 kg, and fruit, from 11.9 to 12.4 kg, while the largest decreases were in bread and pasta, from 18.6 to 18 kg, and in oil, from 2.8 to 2.5 litres, according to the NSI.