site.btaShare of Bulgarians Having Trouble Making Ends Meet in COVID Times Exceeds 75%

In the second quarter of 2022, as in the previous two quarters, the share of Bulgarians who had trouble covering their daily expenses was over 75%, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) reported on Thursday. About 37.1% of respondents in a survey said it was "somewhat difficult" to cover their daily expenses, another 28.5% said it was "difficult", and 12.9% said it was "very difficult".

The data is from the NSI's quarterly monitoring of changes in the living conditions of Bulgarian households caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The institute polled 5,740 respondents aged 16 and over, who are members of 3,053 households.

For 18.2% of interviewees, it was "relatively easy" to cover their daily expenses, and 3.3% had "no difficulty at all". In aggregate, the proportion of those who were easily making ends meet in the second quarter of 2022 decreased by 0.2 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2022 and 2.9 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2021.

By the second quarter of 2022, the household incomes of 73% of Bulgarians had remained unchanged for 12 months. Another 19.2% reported growing incomes over the 12-month period (up by 0.7 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2022 and down by 10.6 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2021, when 29.8% of respondents reported growing incomes.) In all three quarters under review, the main reasons for income growth were rising pensions and welfare benefits, and wage adjustments.

Shrinking incomes over the last 12 months were reported by 7.7% of those polled, the main reasons being job loss/unemployment/bankruptcy or cuts on working hours, daily pay or monthly wage.

In the second quarter of 2022, 6.9% of respondents said they have felt lonely all or most of the time over the previous four weeks, while 45% did not feel lonely at any time.

In the three reporting quarters, Bulgarians made upbeat assessments of their satisfaction with their relationships with family, friends, neighbours and others, putting it at an average of 7 points on a scale of 0 to 10.

The average level of satisfaction of people aged 16 and over was lowest when it came to the financial position of their households, at 4.61 points out of 10 in the fourth quarter of 2021, 4.51/10 in the first quarter of 2022 and 4.64/10 in the second quarter of 2022. The overall satisfaction with the financial position of one's household was influenced by the income level. Among the top 20% of households with the highest net incomes, satisfaction averaged about 6% throughout all three quarters under review. Among the bottom 20% of households with the lowest incomes, satisfaction with the financial position averaged 3%.