2024-07-18 08:17:28
Cheese and milk in Bulgaria are the most expensive in the EU
Cheese, milk and oil have some of the highest prices in the EU. In our country, a kilogram of cheese costs 9.61 euros, and in Spain – 6.4 euros. Oil prices in Bulgaria are falling on an annual basis by about 21%, but still hold one of the highest prices in the EU. A liter costs 2.03 euros, and in Romania it is twice as cheap. This was shown by the KNSB survey on the monitoring of consumer prices and the necessary living wage as of June.
In order to live, a working person normally needs exactly BGN 1,453 if he lives alone. If there is a family with a child – BGN 2,615. For the first time since 2013, the cost of living decreased in the second quarter of the year, but only by 0.1%. However, 1/3 of working people live on less than BGN 1,000.
The minimum wage in our country is BGN 933 (EUR 477), which remains the lowest in the EU, and only Albania remains behind us in Europe with EUR 385. Before us are three countries that are not members of the EU – Montenegro (533 euros), Serbia (544 euros) and Turkey (613 euros). The highest continues to be in Luxembourg – 2571 euros.
In our country, the minimum wage for a month is actually the weekly wage for a German
The cost of labor in our country per hour is 9.3 euros, and it is over 40 euros in nine countries such as Luxembourg, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Austria.
With the minimum wage in our country, we can buy only 8.4 times the small consumer basket of 20 vitally important goods – bread, cheese, meat and gasoline. In countries such as Spain, France, the Netherlands and Germany, with one MRZ, a person can buy the same basket about 30 times.
In one year in Bulgaria, the price of the basket increased by only 0.6%, but this statistic is misleading, because the only products whose price has decreased are actually vegetables and oil. The biggest drop is in the price of cabbage – almost 24%. The price of a kilogram of potatoes has fallen by about 20%.
Almost every other product has an annual price increase.
The price per kilogram of minced meat has increased the most – with as much as 11.9%,
followed by that of apples – 11.2%. If we want to buy a kilo of sausages, we will have to pay 9.5% more, the price of chicken has increased by 7.5% per kilo. The only meat whose price has decreased is boneless pork – by about 2%.
KNSB insists that in the next year’s budget, sufficient funds should be set aside for a general horizontal income policy, which would lead to at least a 10% increase in wages in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the EU members.