The social and economic development of Bulgaria after the start of the democratic reforms of 1989 accelerated the process of stratification and polarization in Bulgarian society. The standard of living of the majority of the population dropped significantly. This process strengthened the interest in the study of poverty and the need for better policies to overcome it. We read this in the report of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy released 10 years ago, according to which poverty depends on changes in the economic situation of this country. However eloquent the trend towards lasting impoverishment might be, we did not get to the adoption of an official "poverty line" in Bulgaria and hence the building of an adequate social policy.

A year ago, the government adopted a regulation that as poor would be considered households in Bulgaria that live on a monthly income of up to € 125. We can hardly speak of a normal life outside the poverty line for a family raising two children and has an income of about 400 euros, citizens comment. What actually does this indicator measure?, people ask, since there are pensioners who receive a pension of 50 euros less than the accepted poverty line. According to prof. Gancho Ganchev from the Institute of Economics and International Relations, poverty is the central problem facing the entire development of this country at the moment. Together with a team of professionals, he has developed a survey on various aspects of the fight against poverty in recent years in Bulgaria.

Experts note that the model of economic development from 1997 is now fully depleted. Bulgaria is in a new situation, which is characterized by difficulties in overcoming the crisis and turmoil in the financial sector. The assumption that the presence of very poor and very rich people is an economic incentive do not work in the country, said Professor. Ganchev and noted that Bulgaria remains among the European countries with the greatest distinction between rich and poor. Bulgarians remain first in terms of poverty among the population of the EU. Most are the poor people among the Roma, pensioners and people with low skills and education. "Low income, high and persistent unemployment have a negative impact on the entire national economy," says openly Spaska Petrova, Deputy Labour Minister in the caretaker government of Georgi Bliznashki:

"The study of poverty proves that the measures taken so far are insufficient. The global economic crisis affected the national economy. The social consequences adversely affect our goal of reducing the poor to 260 thousand people by 2020. Bulgaria is among the countries with the risk of poverty for people above the EU average. One of the new operational programs to mitigate poverty in the strategy "Europe 2020" is aimed at the poorest people in Bulgaria, as it will be supported in the next year."

All studies of poverty made so far reveal the regional dimensions of the problem. The end result has been to draw up a map of poverty in the country. The southwest region is most well-developed, but generally in all other regions there is a general tendency for deepening poverty. Many hopes were directed to tourism as a factor of economic development. Good news, however, are still not coming from there and the answer to the question "why" comes from Assoc. Prof. Preslav Dimitrov:

"Even a slight decrease in the gross domestic product immediately causes a proportionate contraction of revenue from tourism. Indicative of the poor condition are also the incomes of workers in the sector. Since 2000, wages have increased by about 200 euros, and we must consider that tourist sector workers are hired only for a certain time of the year. Moreover, there is no working social mechanism to retain quality staff in Bulgaria. Every year we recruit new people who are yet to be trained, and therefore do not receive higher pay. Therefore, in 2024 we can expect that incomes in the tourist sector will again be under € 500 per month and the industry will continue to produce poverty in the future."

English: Rossitsa Petcova