Bulgaria Budget surplus at 890M leva in H1 2015

Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said that the consolidated Budget surplus in the first half of 2015 came in at 890 million leva, or 1.1 per cent of the forecast gross domestic product (GDP), an improvement of 2.3 per cent of GDP compared to the same period of last year, when the consolidated Budget showed a deficit of 996.4 million leva.

After four months of surplus growth, June saw a decline compared to May, when the consolidated Budget surplus was 1.09 billion leva. But the decline fits in the annual trends, where summer months mark higher Budget spending than revenue, and the surplus figure at the end of June was higher than the 850 million leva forecast by the Finance Ministry a month earlier.

The ministry said that the high surplus this year was the result of improved revenue collection, while spending remained roughly unchanged compared to 2014. In July, the surplus is expected to shrink further, to 801 million leva.

In the first six months of the year, the state Budget had a surplus of 439.9 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 450.2 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first half of 2015 was 505.3 million leva.

Consolidated Budget revenue in January-June was 16.3 billion leva, an improvement of 15 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 9.9 per cent compared to the first six months of last year, at 12.29 billion leva.

Budget spending was 15.4 billion leva in the first half of the year, up by 1.6 per cent compared to 2014.

(Photo: Sanja Gjenero)

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