Bulgaria January-May 2021 Budget deficit at 140.6M leva
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on June 30 that the consolidated Budget balance for January-May 2021 recorded a deficit of 140.6 million leva, less than the 173 million leva forecast by the ministry last month.
This was a sharp decline from last year, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.31 billion leva in the first five months of the year. For the first half of this year, the ministry forecast a Budget surplus of 82 million leva at the end of June, owing to higher revenue from annual corporate tax returns that were due in June.
The state Budget had a surplus of 58.5 million leva and the EU funds recorded a deficit of 199.1 million leva at the end of May. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first five months of 2021 was 683.2 million leva.
Revenue in January-May was 20.48 billion leva, an increase of 16.1 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were 15.73 billion leva, an increase of 12.3 per cent compared to January-May 2020.
Budget spending was up to 20.62 billion leva in the first five months of the year, compared to 16.32 billion leva in the same period of 2020. The increase was mainly due to spending on social and economic measures meant to overcome the negative effects of Covid-19, as well as higher spending in the social sector, the ministry said.
(Photo: Pedro Moura Pinheiro/flickr.com)
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