Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry said on February 28 that the consolidated Budget surplus for the first month of 2020 was 878.6 million leva, or 0.7 per cent of this year’s estimated gross domestic product, exceeding the ministry’s forecast of 841.3 million leva issued last month.
The figure represented a drop of 0.2 percentage points of GDP compared to the same period of 2019, when Bulgaria recorded a Budget surplus of 1.01 billion leva. For February, the ministry forecast a Budget surplus of 1.5 billion leva at the end of the month.
The state Budget had a surplus of 967.1 million leva and the EU funds deficit was 88.5 million leva. Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget for the first month of 2020 was 187.3 million leva.
Revenue in January was 3.77 billion leva, compared to 3.72 billion leva in the same period of last year. Tax revenues were 3.19 billion leva, up from 3.03 billion leva in January 2019.
Budget spending was 2.89 billion leva in January, up from 2.71 billion leva in the same period of 2019. In part, that was due to increased capital spending higher pension, higher staff costs and pension payments resulting from the pension hikes in 2010, the ministry said.
Source: https://sofiaglobe.com
