In July 2026, industrial producer prices on the domestic market in Bulgaria rose by 12.5 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, according to preliminary data from Eurostat.
This inflation level places Bulgaria in third place for the largest annual increase among European Union countries. Only Ireland at 14.8 percent and Lithuania at 12.9 percent are ahead of us. At the opposite end of the ranking, only Luxembourg recorded a price decline of 7.3 percent.
Despite the significant increase, the annual growth rate of producer prices in the country shows signs of slowing down, having been 18.2 percent in June and 19.3 percent in May. Looking at the data on a monthly basis, prices in the country increased by 0.6 percent in July, following a recorded decline of 1.3 percent in June.
Within the eurozone, producer prices rose by 5.8 percent compared to July 2025, while for the entire European Union, the increase was 5.6 percent. On a monthly basis, prices increased by 1.6 percent in the eurozone and by 1.4 percent in the EU, whereas in the previous month of June, declines of 0.3 and 0.2 percent were reported, respectively.
Eurostat reports significant differences by country in the monthly price movement:
- Highest increases: Ireland (4.3 percent), Italy and Spain (3 percent each), and Cyprus (2.3 percent).
- Largest decline compared to June: Estonia (3.3 percent), Finland (1.6 percent), and Sweden (1.1 percent).
A major factor for the monthly increase in the indices is the rise in energy prices, with prices in this sector growing by 5.6 percent in the eurozone and 4.7 percent in the EU. When the energy sector is excluded from the calculations, producer prices remained unchanged in the eurozone and recorded a minimal growth of 0.1 percent in the EU compared to June.
Sectoral breakdown in the eurozone and the EU shows the following trends:
- Capital goods: growth of 0.3 percent in both zones.
- Intermediate goods: prices in the eurozone remained unchanged, while they increased by 0.1 percent in the EU.
- Durable consumer goods: no change in the eurozone and a growth of 0.2 percent in the EU.
- Non-durable consumer goods: a decline of 0.1 percent in the eurozone and 0.2 percent in the EU.
On an annual basis, energy products became 12.9 percent more expensive in the eurozone and 12.5 percent more expensive in the EU. Prices for intermediate goods rose by 6.3 percent and 6 percent, respectively. If energy is excluded, the overall level of producer prices was 3.1 percent higher in the eurozone and 3 percent higher in the EU compared to July 2025.