Bulgaria January-April 2019 Budget surplus at 2.7B levs
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first four months of 2019 was 2.7 billion levs, or 2.3 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, exceeding the ministry’s forecast of 2.68 billion leva issued last month.
The figure represented an increase of one percentage point of GDP compared to the same period of 2018 when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.53 billion leva, the ministry said in a statement.
For May, the ministry forecast a Budget surplus of 2.98 billion leva at the end of the month.
The state Budget had a surplus of 2.57 billion leva and the EU funds surplus was 134.6 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first four months of 2019 was 536.6 million leva.
Revenue in January-April was 15.18 billion leva, an improvement of 14.5 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were up 10 per cent compared to January-April 2018, at 11.97 billion leva.
Budget spending was 12.48 billion leva in January-April, up from 11.65 billion leva in the same period of 2018. In part, that was due to higher pension and health insurance payments resulting from the pension hikes in 2018, wage hikes in the education sector and a higher contribution to the EU budget, the ministry said.
Source: https://sofiaglobe.com
