Podcast in English
Audio Player
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Two bank deposits per every Bulgarian

Photo: archive

Bulgarians keep their money on close to 12 million bank deposits, the Bulgarian National Bank reports. In practice this means that every Bulgarian has two bank deposits on average. There are no statistics whether deposits are kept in the same bank or in different banks. However figures suggest that in reality their number is down: a year ago it was by 3 percent higher. Overall, Bulgarians keep about 20 billion euro on their deposits, or 10 percent more cash than the same period of last year.

It turns out that Bulgarians concentrate and join together their constantly rising, though actually modest savings but they still are not running the risk of putting all eggs in a single basket. Indeed, they have a good reason to do so, especially after Bulgaria's forth biggest lender collapsed and was declared bankrupt a few days ago and thousands of depositors lost part of their savings.

In rough estimates, every Bulgarian keeps an average of 3000 euro on a bank deposit. These statistics tend to be misleading though. The reality is much different and there is no change in the fact that Bulgarians are the poorest nation across the European Union. In fact, close to 70% of deposits stand at the modest amount of 500 euro. At the opposite end of the spectrum are affluent Bulgarians, and there is hardly a sensation in the fact that deposits exceeding 500,000 euro are not more than 685.

Official BNB statistics do not reveal anything about secret deposits of rich people in foreign banks. Media often launch speculations linked to the names of top politicians, underground bosses and leading businessmen.

A million euro-strong deposit is something most Bulgarians cannot imagine given that the average monthly salary in this country is 400 euro, and the average monthly pension is 200 euro. Adding the fact that the number of employed Bulgarians is steadily decreasing and that in the last three months alone 50,000 lost their jobs, it becomes clear that solvency is quite problematic with Bulgarians.

The ambition of the new Social Minister Ivailo Kalfin to introduce a minimum hourly wage of 2 euro will hardly bring about any radical change to the picture. Whatever happens in the short term, it won't break the habit of Bulgarians to save against a rainy day, no matter how modestly.

English Daniela Konstantinova




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Bulgaria and Argentina take new steps in their trade cooperation

Bilateral relations between Bulgaria and Argentina have received a new impetus for development following the visit of an Argentine delegation from the Chaco province to Bulgaria at the beginning of November . High-ranking officials from the..

published on 11/5/24 11:49 AM
Dobrin Ivanov

Employers want the Supreme Administrative Court to freeze the minimum wage

Employers are contesting the rise of the minimum wage. The Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association announced that they filed a complaint in the Supreme Administrative Court. About 430,000 people in the country work for minimum wage...

published on 11/5/24 11:41 AM

Jesus Caballero grabs Manager of the Year Award for 2024

If the political crisis continues, the lost benefits will reach a threshold after which the Bulgarian business will begin to lose competitiveness due to growing deficits in education, healthcare, infrastructure, regional development and demographics...

published on 11/5/24 9:54 AM