Is your pay rise beating inflation in Bulgaria?
Prices in Bulgaria rose 5.6% in the year to September 2026. A pay rise below that leaves you worse off than before.
лв1,000 of last year’s pay now goes as far as лв947.35.
Measured on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), published by Eurostat.
Pay Rise Calculator
Enter a salary and an offer and this will say what the offer is worth once the prices between those dates are taken off it.
What each offer is worth over a year
Prices rose 5.6% in the twelve months to September 2026. Measured against that, this is what лв1,000 of salary becomes under each offer, and what that money actually buys. Anything under лв1,000 in the last column is a cut however it is described.
| Offer | лв1,000 becomes | Which really buys |
|---|---|---|
| 1% | лв1,010.00 | лв956.82 |
| 2% | лв1,020.00 | лв966.30 |
| 3% | лв1,030.00 | лв975.77 |
| 4% | лв1,040.00 | лв985.24 |
| 5% | лв1,050.00 | лв994.72 |
| 5.6%level | лв1,055.58 | лв1,000.00 |
| 6% | лв1,060.00 | лв1,004.19 |
| 8% | лв1,080.00 | лв1,023.14 |
| 10% | лв1,100.00 | лв1,042.08 |
The marked row is the offer that leaves you level over those twelve months. The last column is what each amount buys measured against prices a year earlier, so it can be compared with the лв1,000 you started from. For a gap that is not a year, use the calculator above.
What it took to stand still, year by year
Inflation in Bulgaria for each of the last ten years, and what a salary left alone was worth by the end of each of them. 2022 took the most, at 13.0%; 2016 took the least, at -1.3%.
| Year | Inflation | лв1,000 fell to |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | -1.3% | лв1,013.42 |
| 2017 | 1.2% | лв988.29 |
| 2018 | 2.6% | лв974.31 |
| 2019 | 2.5% | лв976.02 |
| 2020 | 1.2% | лв987.93 |
| 2021 | 2.8% | лв972.41 |
| 2022 | 13.0% | лв884.79 |
| 2023 | 8.6% | лв920.81 |
| 2024 | 2.6% | лв974.69 |
| 2025 | 3.5% | лв965.84 |
Inflation in a year is that year's average price level against the previous year's, which is the figure Bulgaria's own statisticians publish.
Two things this does not account for
Tax. Every figure here is gross. A rise is taxed, so what reaches your account is less than the percentage suggests, and where thresholds are frozen a rise can move you into a higher band and take a larger share than the year before. A rise that beats inflation before tax can still leave you worse off after it.
Your own prices. Inflation is an average across everything a typical household buys. If your rent rose, or you drive a long way to work, or you heat a large house, your own figure is higher than the published one and the pay rise you need is bigger.