Growth of the average wage by over 17% in one year reported by NSI

The average gross monthly wage for March was 1,953 BGN, according to national statistics data. In January 2023, the average gross wage was 1,863 BGN and in February – 1,830 BGN.

In the first quarter of 2023, the average monthly wage increased by 17.3% compared to the first quarter of 2022, with the largest increase in the economic activities "Production and distribution of electricity, heat and gaseous fuels" - by 26.9%, "Transport, storage and post" - by 25.2%, and "Agriculture, forestry and fishing" - by 24.2%.

The economic activities with the highest average monthly remuneration of employees in the first quarter of 2023 are:

• "Creation and distribution of information and creative products; telecommunications" - BGN 4,578;
• "Financial and insurance activities" - BGN 2,972;
• "Production and distribution of electricity, heat and gaseous fuels" - BGN 2,847.

The lowest paid employees were in the following economic activities:

"Hotels and restaurants" - BGN 1,098;

"Other activities" - BGN 1,228;

"Agriculture, forestry and fishery" - BGN 1,365.

Compared to the same period of the previous year, the average monthly wage in the first quarter of 2023 in the public sector increased by 16.5% and in the private sector - by 17.5%.

In the first quarter of 2023, the average monthly wage is BGN 1,882 and increases compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 by 0.2%.

The economic activities with the largest increase were "Transport, storage and post" - by 6.1%, "Mining and quarrying" - by 5.6%, "Administrative and support activities" - by 5.3%, and "Financial and insurance activities" - by 4.2%.