Bulgaria: Inflation decelerates in December from prior month
Latest reading: Harmonized consumer prices rose 3.5% in annual terms in December, following a 3.7% increase in the previous month. December’s reading was the joint-weakest since July. Still, price pressures remained higher than the ECB’s 2.0% target.
Over 2025 as a whole, harmonized inflation averaged 3.5% (2024: 2.6%), above the 10-year pre-pandemic average.
Relative to the previous month’s figures, in December there were milder price pressures for transportation (-0.2% year on year vs +0.5% in November), housing and utilities (+7.9% vs +8.2% in November), recreation (+4.5% vs +5.9% in November) and restaurants and hotels (+6.7% vs +6.9% in November). In contrast, there were more notable price pressures for food and non-alcoholic beverages (+6.0% vs +5.5% in November).
Meanwhile, consumer prices were up 5.0% on a year-on-year basis in December, following a 5.2% rise in the previous month.
Finally, harmonized consumer prices were up 0.13% in December in month-on-month terms, following a 0.15% rise in the previous month.