Bulgarians' monthly allowance has increased by 2% for the period January-March 2012 and by 3.6% on an annual basis.

The monthly allowance per person in a four-member household is BGN 547.40 and the whole family needs BGN 2189.60, according to Lyuben Tomev, Director of the Institute for Trade Union and Social Research at the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).

In a Friday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), he made clear that the share of people living in poverty had stabilized at around 23%, a pretty high percentage.

Tomev noted that the main factors behind the increase in the monthly allowance were the new excise tax rates on natural gas for industrial purposes, the rising cost of crude oil on international markets, the higher cost of natural gas and the 2.6% increase in food prices during the first quarter of the year.

Lighting, heating and energy costs grew by 7% on an annual basis.

The cost of gasoline, motor oils and lubricants went up by 9.1% in the past quarter, while prices of gasoline and diesel fuel added 12.7 and 7.2%, respectively, in Q1, 2012.

"It is worrying that in times of crisis we are experiencing a relatively high inflation of goods and services that concern average-income or even low-income Bulgarians," Tomev stated.

"As a result of these unfavorable trends, in 2011 household per capita income dropped by 0.9% on the year in real terms, the average pension lost 3.1% of its purchasing power and the minimum wage lost 4%," he added.

"Only the minimum wage retained its purchasing power thanks to the increase from September 01 2011. As regards the average monthly salary, there is an increase of 4.4%, but here we notice the structural effect at play, i.e. the shrinking employment and job losses mostly among low-qualified workers, which artificially inflates the average monthly salary," Tomev observed.

He also drew attention to the 2.6% decline in industrial production and investment activity, the downward trend in exports and the ongoing slump in consumption, which shrunk by 6.4% in February 2012.