Bulgaria January-August 2016 Budget surplus at 3.32B leva, beats forecasts
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on September 30 that the consolidated Budget surplus for the eight months of 2016 was 3.32 billion leva, or 3.7 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, exceeding the ministry’s 3.29 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The figure represented an improvement of three GDP percentage points compared to the same period of 2015, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 622 million leva, the ministry said in a statement. It forecast a Budget surplus of 3.39 billion leva at the end of September.
The state Budget had a surplus of 1.91 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 1.4 billion leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first eight months of 2016 was 536.4 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. The lower government spending was due to the slow start in using EU funds in the current budget period, but also because some investment spending was shifted to the last quarter of the year due to “technological and procedural factors.”
Revenue in January-August was 23.01 billion leva, an improvement of 7.1 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 8.2 per cent compared to the first eight months of last year, at 17.91 billion leva.
Budget spending was 19.7 billion leva, down from 20.87 billion leva in the same period of 2015.
