December 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria will contribute around one billion levs ($609 million/511 million euro) into the EU budget next year, the parliament said.
The country will spend an additional 3.3 million levs to finance activities related to its forthcoming EU presidency, the National Assembly said in a statement late on Thursday upon the final adoption of the 2018 state budget.
Bulgaria will take over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the EU on January 1, 2018. The country is part of a "trio" with currently presiding Estonia and Austria, which will hold the Council presidency from July 1, 2018. The trio’s programme will focus on security and strengthening the EU's external borders, economic growth and competitiveness, as well as helping boost stability in the bloc's neighbouring regions.
On Thursday, the Bulgarian parliament approved the state budget for 2018, setting the deficit at some 1.1 billion levs.
The budget is built on projections for economic growth of 3.9%, the finance ministry has said.
The state budget for 2017 targeted deficit equivalent to 1.4% of the projected GDP.
However, the ministry said on Thursday that it expects the consolidated budget to show a surplus of 2.3 billion levs for the January-November period, equivalent to 2.3% of the projected GDP.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)