January 5 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's draft budget for 2022 will envisage a deficit of up to 3% of the planned gross domestic product (GDP), in line with the Maastricht criteria, finance minister Assen Vassilev said.
The draft budget bill is expected to be submitted to parliament for consideration by the end of January and to be approved by the end of February, Vassilev said in a video file published on the website of local business news outlet Dnevnik.bg on Tuesday.
According to the agreement signed by the four political forces that form Bulgaria's government coalition after the November snap election, the budget for 2022 will be updated in the middle of the year.
The government led by prime minister Kiril Petkov, leader of election winner We Continue the Change, took the oath of office last month. The new cabinet comprises ministers from We Continue the Change, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), populist formation There Is Such a People (TISP) and the anti-status quo, pro-reform Democratic Bulgaria coalition.
Earlier in December, the caretaker government decided to withdraw its draft budget bill that envisaged a budget deficit for 2022 equivalent to 5.4% of GDP, thus leaving it to the new regular government to propose its own draft budget after it is voted into office.
Last week, the finance ministry said that Bulgaria's consolidated budget is expected to be in deficit of 4.0 billion levs ($2.3 billion/2.0 billion euro) as at the end of 2021, equivalent to 3.0% of the projected GDP for the year.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)