Only 20% of Bulgarians have received a pay rise, and 80% are unable to cover their day-to-day living expenses.

According to a survey by the National Statistical Institute, 80% of working people in Bulgaria have received practically no pay rise even though inflation in the past year has been in the double digits. Shortage of cash has pushed one-third of the respondents to cut down on their energy consumption, with almost 9% of the respondents living in cities saying they cannot afford a sufficient level of energy consumption, the survey shows. In villages statistics show a 9 percentage point increase in the share of this group, which means 37.8% of respondents are energy poor.