Bulgaria January-September 2016 Budget surplus at 3.36B leva, below forecast
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first nine months of 2016 was 3.36 billion leva, or 3.8 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, narrowly missing the ministry’s 3.39 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The figure represented an improvement of 3.1 percentage points of GDP compared to the same period of 2015, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 632 million leva, the ministry said in a statement. It forecast a Budget surplus of 3.41 billion leva at the end of October.
The state Budget had a surplus of 1.95 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 1.41 billion leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first nine months of 2016 was 611.5 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. Earlier, the ministry said that 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-September was 25.65 billion leva, an improvement of 6.2 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 8.3 per cent compared to the first nine months of last year, at 20.11 billion leva.
Budget spending was 22.29 billion leva, down from 23.53 billion leva in the same period of 2015.
(Photo: Michael Faes/sxc.hu)
