Bulgaria records 999.7 million leva Budget deficit in January-February 2025
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has recorded a consolidated Budget deficit of 999.7 million leva in the first two months of the year, in line with the ministry’s earlier projection for a one billion leva deficit, the ministry said late on April 1.
In the same period of 2024, Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 994.4 million leva, although that figure was boosted by the transfer of 1.2 billion leva from the 2023 Budget, earmarked as funding for municipal projects.
That transfer took place in February 2024 and inflated the surplus for the first two months of last year. Eliminating that transaction, on a like-for-like basis, the consolidated Budget recorded a deficit of 205.6 million leva in the first two months of 2024.
The finance ministry said it projected a consolidated Budget deficit of 1.9 billion leva for the first three months of the year, or about 0.9 per cent of projected GDP.
With Parliament passing the 2025 Budget package in late March, the ministry was somewhat constricted in its spending under the state budget (which forms a large part of the consolidated budget) in the first two months of the year, both by the actual revenue collected and by the amount that had been spent in the same period of 2024.
Consolidated budget revenue in January-February was 11 billion leva, up 10.4 per cent, mainly due to the increase in tax revenues, which rose by 13.3 per cent to 9.08 billion leva, the ministry said.
Spending was 12 billion leva, up from 8.97 billion leva in the same period of 2024, with the bulk of the increase going to higher pensions and other social spending.
(Photo: Alessandro Paiva/sxc.hu)
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