Bulgaria January-November 2020 Budget deficit at 213.7M leva
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on January 1 that the consolidated Budget deficit for the first 11 months of 2020 was 213.7 million leva, exceeding the ministry’s 183.2 million leva forecast issued in November.
This was well below the 1.3 billion leva surplus recorded in the same period of 2019. For the full year 2020, the Finance Ministry projected the Budget balance to record a deficit of 3.6 billion leva, or three per cent of gross domestic product.
The state Budget had a deficit of 255.8 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 42.1 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first 11 months of 2020 was 1.18 billion leva.
Revenue in January-November was 39.7 billion leva, a decline of 155.1 million leva compared to the same period of 2019. Tax revenues were up to 32.04 billion leva, compared to 31.99 billion leva in January-November 2019.
The Finance Ministry said that despite the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was on track to exceed the revised tax revenue collection targets, as recent months showed a trend of gradual improvement in tax collection which compensated the slowdown experienced earlier in the year.
Budget spending was 39.91 billion leva in the first 11 months of this year, slightly up compared to the same period of 2019, when it was 38.55 billion leva.
The main change was in the distribution of spending, with last year’s capital expenditures boosted by the international government procurement contracts to acquire eight F-16 Block 70 aircraft and related equipment. This year’s figures had higher spending on social payments, subsidies and staff costs, as well as measures to counter the economic effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry said.
(Illustration: svilen001/sxc.hu)
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