Personal finance

Pension increases of 2.4% from January 1, 2025, wage increases for public sector employees from April 1, 2025, reductions in social security contributions, a reduction in the solidarity contribution, and a Christmas bonus for 1.9 million citizens are forecast in the state budget.

Details:

Pensions in Bulgaria will be increased by 9.6-9.7% from July next year, as per the Ministry of Finance's latest estimates, which are in line with the Swiss indexation rule. Initially, experts had predicted a smaller increase of 8.7%. As a result, the minimum pension is expected to rise to approximately 636-637 leva.

The cumulative increase in pensions over the last three years will significantly exceed 13%, Deputy Labor and Social Security Minister Panos Tsakloglou said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Sunday.

The President of SEV is calling for the amendment of the Development Law and the inclusion of large investments with tax incentives in it, given the termination of the Recovery Fund and as a measure to close the investment gap that the country continues to present against the rest of Europe despite the significant improvement of the last five years.

A sociological survey conducted by the Trend agency and commissioned by the Expert Club for Economics and Politics (EKIP) reveals that 73% of Bulgarians feel their savings have diminished due to high inflation since mid-2021.

The official payment of October pensions to beneficiaries commenced on Wednesday, September 25.

Tomorrow, pensions for former Employees’ Funds [IKA-ETAM, BANK, OTE, PPC, OTHER INSTITUTIONS (TSEAPGSO, TSP-ISAP), NAT, ETAT, ETAP-MME] will be disbursed, along with both the main and supplementary pensions for public sector employees.

The beneficiaries of the package of measures announced by the Prime Minister at the TIF, which unfolds from now until the end of 2025 and approaches 1.4 billion euros, are being presented by the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis

The beneficiaries of the new measures, which were announced by the Prime Minister at the TIF and will roll out from now until the end of 2025, will be presented today by the Minister of National Economy and Finance.

German measures to incentivize workers to retire later come as governments across Europe are turning to pension reforms to address worker shortages and ease the burden on their pension systems.

Here is what other European countries are doing.

France

The reliance of Bulgaria's State Social Insurance (SSI) on the state budget is set to continue growing, according to an actuarial report by the National Social Security Institute (NSSI).