Bulgaria January-July 2016 Budget surplus at 3.28B leva, beats forecasts
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on August 31 that the consolidated Budget surplus for the seven months of 2016 was 3.28 billion leva, or 3.7 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, narrowly exceeding the ministry’s 3.27 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The figure represented an improvement of 2.8 GDP percentage points compared to the same period of 2015, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 789.5 million leva, the ministry said in a statement. It forecast a Budget surplus of 3.29 billion leva at the end of August.
The state Budget had a surplus of 1.75 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 1.53 billion leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first four months of 2016 was 467 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-July was 20.55 billion leva, an improvement of eght per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 9.1 per cent compared to the first seven months of last year, at 15.74 billion leva.
Budget spending was 17.27 billion leva, down from 18.23 billion leva in the same period of 2015.
(Photo: Alessandro Paiva)
