Bulgaria January-May Budget surplus exceeds forecasts, at 2.77B leva
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first five months of 2016 was 2.77 billion leva, or 3.1 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, exceeding the ministry’s 2.68 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The figure represented an improvement of 1.8 GDP percentage points compared to the same period of 2015, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.09 billion leva, the ministry said in a statement. It forecast a Budget surplus of 3.09 billion leva at the end of June.
The state Budget had a surplus of 1.66 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 1.11 billion leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first four months of 2016 was 356.6 million leva.
Higher revenue was the main reason for the continued improvement of public finances, coupled with the reduction of government spending compared to the same period of last year, the ministry said.
Revenue in January-May was 14.9 billion leva, an improvement of 7.5 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 10.1 per cent compared to the first five months of last year, at 11.3 billion leva.
Budget spending was 12.1 billion leva, down from 12.7 billion leva in the same period of 2015.
(Photo: svilen001/sxc.hu)
