Bulgaria January-August 2018 Budget surplus at 2.39B leva
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on September 28 that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first eight months of 2018 was 2.39 billion leva, or 2.3 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, but fell short of the ministry’s 2.47 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The figure for January-August was higher than in the same period of 2017, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 2.15 billion leva. For September, the ministry forecast a Budget surplus of 2.69 billion leva at the end of the month.
The state Budget had a surplus of 2.54 billion leva and the EU funds recorded a deficit of 147.1 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first eight months of 2018 was 738.2 million leva.
Revenue in January-August was 25.98 billion leva, well above the 23.28 billion leva recorded during the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up by 10 per cent compared to the first eight months of last year, reaching 21.34 billion leva.
Budget spending was 23.59 billion leva in January-August, up from 21.13 billion leva in the same period of 2017.
In part, that was due to higher pension and health insurance payments resulting from several pension hikes in 2017 and 2018, as well as higher salaries in the education sector, but also increased capital spending using EU funds, the ministry said.
(Photo: Alessandro Paiva/sxc.hu)
