Bulgaria's year on year inflation rate has risen above 4%, according to a report released on Monday by experts from the Bulgarian Center for Economic Development.

Upon comparing December 2010 with December 2009, all inflation gauges show that the prices in Bulgaria have gone up with more than 4% - 4.5% according to the consumer price index (compared to 0.6% in 2009), 4.4% according to the harmonized index of consumer prices and 4.2% according to the small inflation basket.

In 2011, the consumer prices in Bulgaria will still be dictated by the cautious final consumption, the report says. Since there are no significant increases in store for the internationally and the administratively regulated prices, the inflation for 2011 is expected to be around 3%.

The rise in unemployment has been slowing down, according to the experts. The third quarter of 2010 saw a 5% decrease in the number of employed year on year, compared with 6.5% and 7.3% during the second and first quarter respectively. In the third quarter, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.5%.

The report expects a slight increase in the Bulgarian unemployment rate in 2011, the expected percentage of registered unemployed being 8.5-9%