Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on October 30 that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first nine months of 2020 was 871.4 million leva, falling short of the ministry’s 890 million leva forecast issued last month.
This was down from the 1.26 billion leva surplus recorded in the same period of 2019. For October, the Finance Ministry projected the surplus to decline to 618 million leva, or 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product, due to increased spending on measures meant to reduce the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The state Budget had a surplus of 484.9 million leva and the EU funds surplus was 386.5 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first nine months of 2020 was 890.9 million leva.
Revenue in January-September was 32.42 billion leva, a decline of 382.4 million leva compared to the same period of last year. Tax revenues were down to 25.99 billion leva, compared to 26.09 billion leva in January-September 2019.
Budget spending was 31.54 billion leva in the first nine months of this year, largely unchanged to the same period of 2019, when it was 31.53 billion leva.
The main change was in the distribution of spending, with last year’s capital expenditures boosted by the international government procurement contracts to acquire eight F-16 Block 70 aircraft and related equipment. This year’s figures had higher spending on social payments, subsidies and staff costs, the ministry said.
Source: https://sofiaglobe.com/
