Bulgaria Q1 2023 Budget deficit at 662.4M leva
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has recorded a consolidated Budget deficit of 662.4 million leva in the first three months of the year, or 0.4 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, below the ministry’s forecast of 690 million leva issued last month.
The figure represented a sharp decline compared to the same period of 2022, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 294.7 million leva.
The ministry said that the “continuing trend” of spending rising faster than revenue was the reason for the “worsening budgetary position.” For April, the ministry forecast a Budget deficit of 1.13 billion leva at the end of the month,.
The state Budget had a deficit of 641 million leva in January-March and the EU funds deficit was 21.4 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first quarter of 2023 was 455.2 million leva.
Revenue in January-March was 14.69 billion leva, up 18.6 per cent from 12.38 billion leva recorded in the same period of last year. Tax revenues were 11.82 billion leva, an increase of 19.7 per cent, the ministry said.
Budget spending was 15.35 billion leva in the first three months of the year, compared to 12.08 billion leva in the same period of 2022, with the bulk of the increase going to higher pensions and subsidies, in particular the scheme to compensate non-household consumers for high electricity prices, as well as higher salaries in the state administration, the ministry said.
(Photo: Alessandro Paiva/sxc.hu)
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