Some 65 per cent of Bulgarians live at or below the poverty line, the Podkrepa Confederation of Labor announced Tuesday at a round table on poverty, countermeasures, social inclusion and sustainable development.

Podkrepa President Konstantin Trenchev drew a link between poverty and unemployment. In his words, besides rising unemployment, the number of people employed in the grey economy is on the rise too.

Podkrepa said that some 80 million Europeans live at the poverty line and that four million EU citizens have lost their jobs recently.

Podkrepa expects unemployment rate to reach a two-digit figure, from 9 to 11 per cent, by the end of the year. Trenchev said that although he did not question unemployment figures released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI), statistics fail to take account of all jobless people.

Trenchev cited workers in construction who are left outside any statistics. Now if they lost their jobs, they would be unaccounted for. Another unaccounted group are Bulgarian immigrants who are forced to return home by the worsening economy. Trenchev said that the NSI estimates were too optimistic and things were much more serious.

Poverty is a phenomenon, which provokes solidarity, said Teodora Demireva of the Labor and Social Policy Ministry. In her words, poverty is increasingly seen as synonymous with financial struggles and violation of certain rights. One of the modern dimensions of poverty is the restricted access to quality education, health care and social networks.

Source: BTA