What is Eurostat?
Eurostat is the official statistics office of the European Union. The prices in
Bulgaria (bread, electricity, rent, fuel, medicine) are collected every month by NSI,
the Bulgarian statistics office, which builds Bulgaria's index from them. The one common
European method, and the check that it was followed, are Eurostat's, and Eurostat
publishes the result free for everyone. This app invents no prices: it copies Eurostat's
official numbers and shows them to you. That's why every figure carries a link (the ↗
icon) to the exact Eurostat table, so you can check it yourself.
All of Bulgaria's figures, with their sources →
What is an "index"?
An index is a number that tracks one group's prices. On its own it means nothing: what
means something is the ratio between two of its readings. If food's index at the end of
2020 was 115 and today it is 185, food is 60% more expensive (185 ÷ 115
= 1.6). Had today's been 150, the rise would be 30%. The app makes exactly that comparison
for the period you pick: today's number against the number for your year. Where each index
starts does not matter: the starting point cancels in the division, so we leave the numbers
exactly as Eurostat publishes them and the ↗ link on the row returns the same digits.
Why does your number differ from the "official inflation"?
The number in the strip up top is Eurostat's official inflation for the whole basket, every Bulgarian pooled together. Your number uses your group shares, so
it differs: if you spend more on faster-rising groups, your inflation is higher, and
vice-versa.
This time the two are for different months. Eurostat publishes the overall rate about two weeks before the group breakdown, and we show each figure with its own month rather than hold the newer one back. The overall figure is for September 2026, the per-group figures for August 2026.
Why don't the two official numbers match exactly?
The number in the strip up top and "the average basket" in the calculation sit a tenth
or two of a percentage point apart. Both are correct and both come from Eurostat, they
are simply assembled differently. "The average basket" is the sum of the 13 groups at
their official weights. The strip's number is not such a sum: every January Eurostat changes the weights, because people spend a little differently than last year, and links the new basket to
the old one at the end of December. The last 12 months run through that changeover,
and that is where the gap comes from. It is the method, not a mistake; which is why we show
both numbers rather than pretending they are one.
Why does the news sometimes quote a slightly different number?
Because inflation in Bulgaria is measured in two official ways, and they differ a
little. Vyarno shows Eurostat's harmonised index (HICP), the measure that is the
same across the EU and the one Bulgaria adopted the euro under. NSI also computes a national index (CPI): a slightly different basket and a different treatment of housing.
So the two can sit a tenth or two apart. Neither is wrong: it is like measuring the same thing
with two rulers whose markings differ slightly. We show only one of them (HICP) so there aren't
two numbers competing to be right.
And your data?
Your salary and spending never leave your device. The whole calculation runs in your
browser. We never see or store anything personal.
Who pays for this?
There is no paid version, and nothing is held back for whoever pays. No figure here depends on who is paying: which data we show, how we compute it and how affordable a home comes out are decided by the source and the method, and by nothing else. The domain is covered by donations; the hosting is free. What donations cover, and what they do not buy →
› the formulas, if you want to work a figure out by hand
Your inflation. Each of the 13 groups has its own official price rise. We
multiply each group's rise by the share of your money that goes to it, and add the
thirteen results up. π = Σ (wi ÷ Σw) × ri. Here wi is your share for group i (the sliders; dividing by Σw normalises them to 100%). ri is the group's official price rise: the annual rate (Eurostat, prc_hicp_minr, RCH_A).
In your pocket. The raise is not subtracted from inflation, it is divided
by it, because the new money is spent at the new prices too. real = (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + π) − 1
Your savings. Money set aside since 2020 is divided by the rise since
then, which leaves its value in today's prices. value today = amount ÷ (1 + the rise since 2020), where the rise is I(now) ÷ I(2020) − 1 on Eurostat's all-items index (prc_hicp_minr, TOTAL) as published
A home. The price is the size times the price per square metre, and
"years" is that price divided by a whole year of your pay. price = €/m² × size · years = price ÷ (12 × pay). The payment is the same every month to the
end of the term, the ordinary bank annuity. P = L × m ÷ (1 − (1 + m)−n), where L = 85% of the price (15% down), m = annual rate ÷ 12, n = term × 12.