Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has said that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first half of 2021 was 118.2 million leva, exceeding the ministry’s forecast of 82 million leva issued last month.
This was a sharp decline from last year, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.61 billion leva in the first six months of the year. At the end of July, the ministry expected the surplus to increase to 731 million leva.
The state Budget had a surplus of 382.5 million leva and the EU funds recorded a deficit of 264.2 million leva at the end of June. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first six months of 2021 was 796.9 million leva.
Revenue in January-June was 24.76 billion leva, an increase of 15.5 per cent compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were 19.25 billion leva, an increase of 12.8 per cent compared to January-June 2020.
Budget spending was up to 24.64 billion leva in the first six months of the year, compared to 19.82 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/
