Bulgaria January-October 2016 Budget surplus at 3.44B leva, above forecast
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first 10 months of 2016 was 3.44 billion leva, or 3.9 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, exceeding the ministry’s 3.41 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The figure represented an improvement of 3.8 percentage points of GDP compared to the same period of 2015, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 63.9 million leva, the ministry said in a statement. It forecast a Budget surplus of 3.47 billion leva at the end of November.
The state Budget had a surplus of 1.97 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 1.47 billion leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first 10 months of 2016 was 687.7 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, according to the ministry statement.
Earlier this year, 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.” It has also amended the Budget framework and now expects a balanced Budget at the end of the year, instead of a 1.8 per cent deficit.
Revenue in January-October was 28.29 billion leva, an improvement of 6.6 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 8.3 per cent compared to the first 10 months of last year, at 22.31 billion leva.
Budget spending was 24.85 billion leva, down from 26.47 billion leva in the same period of 2015.
(Photo: Alessandro Paiva/sxc.hu)
