08.07.2022
THE POVERTY LINE RISES BY BGN 91
The poverty line for 2023 should be BGN 504, suggests the retired Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Georgi Gyokov. The increase is BGN 91, as this year the poverty threshold is set at BGN 413. Compared to 2021, the poverty line was raised by BGN 44.
As the poverty line increases, social assistance under the Social Assistance Act and financial support under the Disability Act will also increase, which will have a favorable impact on the vulnerable and lowest-income groups of the population, the reasons for the project say.
In the Medium-Term Budget Forecast for the period 2023-2025, GDP growth of 2.8%, unemployment rate of 4.8% and employment growth from the national accounts of 0.8% are predicted for 2023.
The latest data from NSI for the first quarter of 2022 report GDP growth of 4.5% on an annual basis. For the first quarter, according to labor force surveillance data, the unemployment rate was 4.9%, and employment, according to national accounts data, increased by 1.6% year-on-year.
The use of the poverty line determined in the EU-SILC survey for 2021 and published in 2022 reflects the socio-economic environment in the country, the labor market and the possibilities of the budget. The changes of a socio-economic nature and the contraction of the global economy in 2020-2021 and the first half of 2022 are primarily related to the consequences of СОVID-19, the dynamic macroeconomic environment and the overall impact of the international environment.
The lack of predictability regarding changes in consumption and employment, related to the still available risks of a health nature, the international situation and inflationary processes, require the use of an objective approach in determining the size of the poverty line for 2023 according to the European research methodology "Statistics of income and living conditions (EU-SILC)", which will simultaneously guarantee the adequacy of the statistical information used and ensure policies related to poverty reduction, writes in the reasons for the project.
The proposed value of BGN 504 compensates for the lag behind the national poverty line compared to the "Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)" survey, increasing by 22% (BGN 91) compared to the amount of the previous year, as for the last 10 years .marks the greatest growth and expands the scope of social assistance.
