Bulgaria reports Q1 Budget surplus in line with forecast
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first quarter of 2016 was 1.86 billion leva, or 2.1 per cent of forecast gross domestic product, in line with its forecast issued last month.
The figure represented an improvement of 1.8 percentage points compared to the same period of 2015, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 255.9 million leva, the ministry said in a statement. It forecast a Budget surplus of 2.35 billion leva at the end of April, a month that traditionally sees a strong inflow of revenues because of the income taxes due for the previous year.
The state Budget had a surplus of 819.7 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 1.04 billion leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first three months of 2016 was 253.9 million leva.
Higher revenue was the main reason for the continued improvement of public finances, the ministry said. Revenue in the first quarter was 9.1 billion leva, an improvement of 16.7 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 11.1 per cent compared to the first three months of last year, at 6.6 billion leva.
Budget spending was 7.2 billion leva, down from 7.5 billion leva in the same period of 2015.
(Photo: Michael Faes/sxc.hu)
