Bulgaria annual inflation falls to 3.6% in January – flash estimate
Bulgaria’s annual consumer price index (CPI) is expected to record 3.6 per cent inflation in January 2026, down from five per cent a month earlier, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a flash estimate on February 3.
The monthly CPI figure is expected to record 0.7 per cent inflation in January, the statistics body said.
NSI reports CPI data mid-month and the figures for January are due to be published on February 16, but the flash inflation estimate is a new report that will be released in the first week of the month going forward, now that Bulgaria joined the euro area on January 1.
NSI deputy head Svilen Kolev told Bulgarian National Television that the statistics body has been calculating CPI flash estimates going back to the last quarter of 2025, without officially releasing its findings.
Those flash estimates showed little or no change from the final figures reported by NSI, Kolev said.
The harmonised CPI figure, calculated by NSI for comparison with European Union data, is expected to record 0.6 per cent monthly inflation in January, while the annual harmonised CPI figure is forecast to fall to 2.3 per cent, from 3.5 per cent in December, the flash estimate said.
Neither monthly CPI figure showed a sharp jump in inflation in the month of January, during which the euro circulated in parallel with the leva, disproving the fears that the introduction of the common European currency would result in a sharp increase in prices and the cost of living.
(Illustration: svilen001/sxc.hu)
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