National Statistical Institute

Statistics on Tourism and Business surveys Department

Hristina Terziyska

Chief expert

2, P. Volov Str., 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 628

The consumer survey contains standardized questions about the financial situation of households, general economic situation, inflation, unemployment, saving, intentions of making major purchases on durable goods or purchasing/building a home or buying a car. The proposed options of answers give an opportunity to arrange them from optimistic, through neutral to pessimistic. The survey results are used to capture the direction of change of observed variables incl. "the consumer confidence level", which gives an opportunity to analyze the tendencies in the development of public opinions on significant economic phenomena in the country.

The respondents are categorized according to 5 criteria: income, occupation, education, age and sex.

The object of the survey is the persons aged 16 and over; the sample method is random, clustered, and proportional to the population by regions, incl. urban/rural inhabitants (154 clusters with 8 persons per cluster).

The consumer confidence indicator is an arithmetic mean of the balances of the expectations about the development over the next 12 months of the financial situation of households, general economic situation, savings and unemployment, as the last is taken with a negative sign.

The replies to the questions are presented in a five-option ordinal scale. The results are in the form of balances which are the difference between the relative shares of the positive and the relative shares of the negative answering options, as there is one specification: the very positive and the very negative answering options are given a coefficient of 1, and the more moderate positive and negative options - a coefficient of 0.5.

Households and their members.

Reference population of the survey - the permanent population of Bulgaria aged 16 years and more.

Total for the territory of Republic of Bulgaria.

Time series of data are published from 2001 (at Information System INFOSTAT of the National Statistical Institute).

Not applicable.

Balance, per cent.

Quarter.

Joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumer surveys.

Manual to the Joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumer surveys.

Not applicable.

• Law on Statistics;
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Individual data are not published in accordance with article 25 of the Law on Statistics. The publishing of individual data can be performed only in accordance with article 26 of the same law.

The date of publication of statistical information is indicated in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute. The data are announced in the first week after the reference period.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Consumer surveys data are published on the NSI website, section Business statistics - Business Surveys in accordance with the Law on Statistics (Chapter 5) and the European Statistics Code of Practice respecting the professional independence and aimed at objectivity, transparency and equal treatment of all consumers.

Quarterly.

NSI publishes regular press releases "Consumer survey" in the first week after the reference period.

Analytical publication "Bulgaria 2011 - statistical panorama"

Data on Consumer survey are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Business statistics - Business Surveys - Consumer survey: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/4385

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Manual to the Joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumer surveys: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/bcs_user_guide_en_0.pdf

Not applicable.

Main users of the data are national and international organizations and institutions.

The users' satisfaction survey is not carried out.

In sample surveys may be mistakes in the registration of answers, processing, and others.

The NSI presents information about survey in the first week after the reference period.

The data are disseminated according to the planned schedule.

The data are prepared at national level.

The time series data are comparable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Main data source are questionnaires.

Quarterly.

The data are collected using a questionnaire by conducting a personal interview with the households included in the sample, and with all persons aged 16 years and over - members of the household.

In introducing and recording data obligatory control is performed according to set validation rules. If the information given in a questionnaire does not meet the requirements of validation are appear the error messages on user's screen. Performed and verify as regards the output data.

The data processing is performed by developed application software.

Not applicable.