Bulgaria January-August 2017 Budget surplus at 2.15B leva
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first eight months of 2017 was 2.15 billion leva, or 2.2 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, just below the ministry’s 2.16 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The January-August figure was about 1.17 billion leva less than in the same period of 2016, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 3.32 billion leva. For September, the ministry forecast a Budget surplus of 2.39 billion leva at the end of the month.
The state Budget had a surplus of 2.14 billion leva and the EU funds recorded a surplus of 6.7 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first eight months of 2017 was 607.4 million leva.
Revenue in January-August was 23.28 billion leva, slightly higher than the 23.01 billion leva recorded during the same period of last year.
The Finance Ministry said that tax and non-tax revenue was up by 7.2 per cent, offsetting the lower amount of aid received by the budget, mainly as a consequence of the high amount of EU funds disbursed in the early months of 2016 when Bulgaria sped up efforts to maximise its allocation of EU funds from the previous budgeting period.
Tax revenues were up by 8.4 per cent compared to the first eight months of last year, at 19.4 billion leva.
Budget spending was 21.13 billion leva in January-August, up from 19.7 billion leva in the same period of 2016. In part, that was due to higher pension and health insurance payments resulting from the pension hike in July 2016, the ministry said.
(Photo: svilen001/sxc.hu)
