Balgarianovinite.com The difference between prices in Bulgaria and the average level in the European Union has narrowed since the pandemic, especially in the period of high inflation following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. By 2025, Bulgaria was no longer the cheapest country in the bloc. At the same time, there are notable differences between one group of goods or services and another. Home costs, public transport and healthcare prices in 2025 remained far below the EU average, while food, communication electronics and household appliances came close to the overall EU level, says Adrian Nikolov, senior economist at the Institute for Market Economics (IME), in an analysis published on the IME website on June 26.
Nikolov specifies that the estimates are based on average annual prices in Bulgaria relative to the conditional average price level in the EU. The comparison is expressed through the price level index, which is different from the consumer price index that measures price changes over the course of a year.
In 2025, the EU’s average price level was between the levels in Italy and France, with most Western European countries (except for Italy, Spain and Portugal) surpassing the EU mean. The lowest levels were reported in Bulgaria and Romania, standing, respectively, at 63% and 65% of the EU average, the analysis shows.
After the inflation surge of late 2022 and early 2023 was contained, the price situations in individual EU member states changed in contrasting ways, Nikolov says. In traditionally more expensive countries, relative price levels decreased, coming closer to the bloc’s average, most visibly in Denmark and Ireland. Conversely, most of the cheaper countries exhibited a further rise to the EU mean. This was particularly notable in Poland, where convergence with the bloc measured more than 10 percentage points (pp) between 2022 and 2025. The change did not come as a surprise, given that faster economic growth in “new” member states usually comes with higher inflation, which increases the EU average.
In Bulgaria, price convergence with the overall EU level was relatively fast compared with other member states in Eastern Europe, reaching 5 pp between 2022 and 2025. While the price gap separating Bulgaria from the EU average remained considerable, the country bounced off the bottom in 2024, and by 2025 it was more expensive than Hungary, Latvia and Estonia and on a par with Slovakia.
Bulgaria’s price convergence with the EU’s average level accelerated tangibly after the pandemic, the IME study shows. While in the previous decade the price level index for the country ranged mostly from 49% to 53% (which does not imply an absence of inflation or unchanging prices), in 2021 it surpassed 55%, and in 2023 it was close to 60%. The change reflects a more rapid growth of the national economy, rising household incomes and considerably higher inflation after the onset of the war in Ukraine compared with the larger economies in the euro area, which have more weight in determining the index.
It is perhaps even more relevant to make price comparisons by groups of goods and services, the analyst suggests. In 2025, the price level in the sector of home and utilities in Bulgaria was only 41% of the overall EU level, and in healthcare it was 46%. At the same time, the ratio in communications was 101%, and in foods and non-alcoholic drinks 93%. The percentage for communications was lower than in previous years, as was also the level in the sector of apparel, but foods showed a notable increase. Prices in these three categories – foods, apparel and communications – remained relatively high in Bulgaria, where household incomes are around half the average EU level.
Even starker contrasts are discernible within the group of foods, which often draws the greatest attention. In 2025, the average price of meat in Bulgaria was 72% of the EU average, and the figure for cereals and bread was 81% and vegetables 83%, but in three other large subgroups of food products, prices remained far above the overall EU levels. In butter and fat, the price level was 142%, in milk, dairy and eggs 126%, and sugar confectionery 116%. The price level for eggs and dairy already exceeded 90% back in the mid-2010s and rose above 100% in the pandemic year 2020.
In butter and fat, Bulgaria reached the EU average in 2013. After 2022, the curve dipped slightly, only to go back up in 2025. In the sector of milk, dairy and eggs, the country has maintained a basically unchanged margin above the EU average over the last few years. These considerable deviations raise questions about the productivity and efficiency of local enterprises producing and distributing food at prices lastingly exceeding the EU’s average levels, and about competition and the functioning of product markets in general, the analyst says.
Discussing expectations for 2026, he notes that Bulgaria and Romania have reported the highest inflation rates in the EU so far in the year, which means that the price convergence process continues. Although the two neighbours will remain cheap countries by EU standards in the coming months, the prices of goods and services in their domestic markets will keep rising closer to the EU’s average level, the expert predicts. Bulgaria Still a Cheap Country by EU Standards but Price Convergence Continues 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-06-28 10:12:19 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
