National Statistical Institute

Statistics on Living Conditions Department

Petia Manahova

State Expert

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

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 612

The variable Purchasing power of the households is estimated based on the information from HBS. The purchasing power is the quantity of a given kind of good, which can be bought with the annual monetary or total income of the household if it is used to buy only this kind of good. Data are represented as absolute values.

· Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP);

· Classification on household income;

· International Standart Classification of Education (ISCED 2011);

· National Classification of Occupations and Duties-2011 (NCOD-2011);

· Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG-2008).

The Household Budget Survey is a sample survey by implementation of two stage cluster. The general population from which the sample for the survey is formed comprises all the households in the country. Institutional households are not studied by the household budget survey. The unit of observation is every randomly chosen ordinary household irrespective of the number of members and their material and personal status. The sample size for the 2002 - 2009 period is 3000 households and since 2010 - 3060 households each quarter.

The variable Purchasing power of the households is estimated based on the information from HBS. The Purchased power represents the volume of a given kind of goods, that could be bought with the annual monetary or total income of the household, in case only used to buy this kind of good. The data are presented as absolute values.

The variable Index of Purchasing Power represents the changes of the purchasing power in relation to a base year.

Households 

The purposive aggregate in the HBS are all ordinary households and their members reside in the territory of the country at the moment of the survey. Persons who live in institutional households are excluded from the aggregate.

For the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Since 2004 - yearly data.

Not applicable

BGN, kg; ton, litre; number; cubic metre; pair, metre, kWh.

Year

Gentlemen agreement with Eurostat.

Not applicable.

· Law on Statistics;

· Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics;

· Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data;

· Law on personal data protection. 

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 and Rules for provision of anonymised individual data for scientific and research purposes.

In April of the year following the reference year.

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

Data is published on the NSI website, section Households Income, Expenditure and Consumption in accordance with the Law on Statistics and the European Statistics Code of Practice respecting the professional independence and aimed at objectivity, transparency and equal treatment of all consumers.

Yearly

News release for publication „Average prices and purchased quantities of main foods and non-foods by households“.

Publication „Average prices and purchased quantities of main foods and non-foods by households“. The publication contains data on the average prices and purchased quantities foods and non-foods by households by years and by quarters. The information from the survey of household budgets is used and because of that these average prices differ from the consumer prices published by the NSI. The purchased quantities foods are computed average per household and the purchased non-foods - average per 100 households. Published are also data on the purchasing power of households calculated by means of total and monetary income, as well as the changes in the purchasing power.

Statistical Reference Book - contains data on purchasing power of households

Statistical Yearbook - contains data on purchasing power of households

Detailed results on Purchasing power are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Households Income, Expenditure and Consumption - Purchasing power of household: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/5724 and in the INFOSTAT Information system: https://infostat.nsi.bg/infostat/pages/module.jsf?x_2=144.

Not applicable.

Information service on request, according to the Rules for the dissemination of statistical products and services in NSI.

Methodological notes about calculation of the average prices and purchased quantities goods by the households

Not applicable.

Through checking on field work and control of the thoroughness of the records in the diaries.

Not applicable.

The data of the average prices and purchased quantities goods is of interest to a wide number of users - state authorities, public and international organizations (Eurostat, OUN, ILO, etc), students and others.

No user' satisfaction surveys are carried out.

Not applicable.

As with any other sample survey, HBS may be burdened with errors due to sampling and other relating to the inability to be interviewed some of the units in the sample, as well as the errors taking place at the stage of data recording, data processing, etc. 

The data are burdened with a certain stochastic error due to the sample character of the survey.

Like any statistical survey and and household budget survey may contain non-sampling errors that arise at different stages of the study and which cannot be completely eliminated. 

Such errors are basically:

• Coverage errors;
• Measurement errors that occur at the time of the data collection;
• processing errors;
• non-response errors.

In order to reduce non-sampling errors:

• Update of the household lists for each of the first stage selection census enumeration areas;
• Development of a clear research methodology, ongoing updating of data coding systems;
• Using interviewers with experience in collecting, controlling, encoding and inputting data;
• Conducting regular training seminars for the interviewers;
• Assistance to the interviewers of the survey team at NSI;
• Data control at the collection, input and processing stage.

Annual data are published in April of the year following the reference year.

The deadlines are observed: for yearly data - four months after the accounting year. 

Not applicable.

Long time series.

Household expenditure survey is in accordance with the following surveys: Consumer Price Indices, National Accounts, Purchasing Power Parity.

Every household takes part in the survey once a quarter.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The general population from which the sample for the survey is formed comprises all the ordinary households in the country.

When forming the sample a two stage cluster’s sampling on a territorial principle is implemented as follows:

• at the first stage the clusters are selected (enumeration areas from the last Census);
• at the second stage the households to be surveyed are identified.

Up to 2009 the selection of territorial units is done with a probability proportional to their size. Since 2010 non-proportional selection has applied in order to produce more accurate sample data in the small regions where the minimum quarter size of the sample include no less 72 households at the expense of decrease of the number of households in the large regions - Sofia (stolitsa), Plovdiv and Varna.

In the selected enumeration areas (clusters) lists of the household are prepared and they are arranged into ascending order, depending on the number of persons. This indicator has a close correlation with the surveyed indicators - income, expenditure, and consumption per capita. 6 households from these lists are chosen from each cluster with a selection step.

Since 2010 the sample size has been 3 060 households divided in three sub-samples each containing 1 020 households. Each sub-sample is surveyed one month per quarter by application of the method of rotation sample. 

The household budget survey applies the principle of the voluntary participation of households which had randomly come into the sample. Every randomly selected household which is not willing or is not able to cooperate is replaced with another from the same cluster and with the same number of members.

Main documents of the Household Budget Survey are:

• Household dairy;
• Three questionnaires.

Monthly to 2009 and quarterly since 2010.

Derivative indicators are calculated on the bases of primary data from HBS.

Logical control of data is happened at the time when the information is introduced.

The data are calculated by means of specialized software on a PC.

Not applicable.