Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first eight months of 2021 was 880.5 million leva, falling short of the ministry’s forecast of 885 million leva issued last month.
This was a sharp decline from the same period last year, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.62 billion leva. At the end of September, the ministry expected the surplus to increase to 1.07 billion leva.
The state Budget had a surplus of 1.13 billion leva and the EU funds recorded a deficit of 244.6 million leva at the end of August. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first eight months of 2021 was 972.4 million leva.
Revenue in January-August was 33.48 billion leva, an increase of 16.2 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were 26.24 billion leva, an increase of 14 per cent compared to January-August 2020.
Budget spending was up to 32.6 billion leva in the first eight months of the year, compared to 27.2 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.
source: https://sofiaglobe.com/
