Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first half of 2018 was 1.71 billion leva, or 1.6 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, narrowly missing the ministry’s 1.74 billion leva forecast issued last month.
The surplus through six months of this year was slightly lower than the figure in the same period of 2017, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.75 billion leva. For July, the ministry forecast a Budget surplus of 2.02 billion leva at the end of the month.
The state Budget had a surplus of 2.01 billion leva and the EU funds showed a deficit of 300.5 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first six months of 2018 was 576.3 million leva.
Revenue in January-June was 19.21 billion leva, an increase of 9.9 per cent compared to the same period of last year. The Finance Ministry said that tax and non-tax revenue was up by 10.1 per cent, while aid revenue was 4.1 per cent higher.
Tax revenues were up by 10.2 per cent compared to the first half of last year, at 16.02 billion leva.
Budget spending was 17.5 billion leva in January-June, up from 15.74 billion leva in the same period of 2017. In part, that was due to higher pension and health insurance payments resulting from the pension hike in July 2017, but also increased capital spending using EU funds, the ministry said.
Source: https://sofiaglobe.com/
