When I read the headline, of this article in the Sofia Echo earlier this week, I thought Wow: <a href="Average pay in Bulgaria surged 186% in past 10 years" target="_self">Average pay in Bulgaria surged 186% in past 10 years</a>.

Then I read the article.
<blockquote>The official average salary in Bulgaria has soared 186 per cent over the past 10 years, with the highest growth registered in pre-crisis 2008, the National Statistics Institute (NSI) reported on March 12, 2011.

Although a number of companies reduced or froze employee pay between 2008 and 2010, while others switched to part-time work, average salary in the private sector has increased by 27 per cent to 605 leva.</blockquote>
That's depressing. 605 Leva.

That's 302 Euro or $437 a month.

The thing is the stats are a little hard to read in the article because the first paragraph starts off talking about the official average salary and then the second paragraph states the average salary in the private sector. Does this mean that public sector salaries are not part of this 605 Leva average? So that in effect the average salary in Bulgaria is actually lower than 605 Leva?

How's that for depressing?