The financial wealth of Bulgarians reached BGN 39.7 bn at the end of 2010, according to the Industry Watch regular report "Personal Assets in Bulgaria: Financial Wealth and the Housing Market, Q1, 2011'', announced the BGNES news agency. According to experts, the increase in prices, particularly of foodstuffs and other goods of prime necessity, limited the saving capacity of Bulgarians. By reducing purchasing power, it turned out that the growth of financial wealth measured in terms of the consumption of goods and services registered a significant decline to 6% in the second half of 2010 year-on-year.

Economists reported that the growth of financial assets is mainly due to the rise of private pension savings and the increase in bank deposits by BGN 3 bn in 2010. In fact, a total of BGN 1.2 bn of these were interest revenues for the year. Wealth will grow more slowly over the next few quarters both due to weak income growth and the increase in the consumer price index, as well as due to the declining profitability of the largest asset of the population, namely, bank deposits. Bulgarians react quickly to changes in the economic conditions, switching from short-term to long-term deposits, which have higher interest rates, commented Industry Watch representatives. In order to preserve the value of their savings, some households choose more risky instruments such as investments in stocks and mutual funds.