April 28 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's finance ministry said on Friday it expects the consolidated budget to show a surplus of 1.6 billion levs ($891.2 million/817.8 million euro) at the end of April, equivalent to 1.6% of the projected 2017 gross domestic product (GDP).
Consolidated budget revenue in the four months through April is expected to be 780.5 million levs higher than a year earlier, at 12 billion levs, or 34% of the full-year plan, the finance ministry said in a statement citing preliminary estimates.
Consolidated budget expenditures are projected to total 10.45 billion levs in the January-April period, or 28.4% of the full-year plan.
In a separate statement, the ministry said that final figures for the period January-March show a consolidated budget surplus of 1.05 billion levs, equivalent to 1.1% of GDP. Consolidated budget revenue for the period amounted to 8.8 billion levs, or 24.9% of the full-year plan, while budget expenditures totalled 7.78 billion levs, equal to 21.2% of the full-year plan.
In 2016, the finance ministry said that country's consolidated budget showed a surplus of 1.86 billion levs, or 2.1% of GDP in the first quarter of 2016, and a surplus of 2.35 billion levs, or 2.6% of GDP, in the January-April period.
Bulgaria's full-year 2016 consolidated budget showed a surplus equivalent to 1.6% of the projected GDP, compared to a deficit of 2.8% of GDP in 2015, the finance ministry has said. The turnaround to end-year budget surplus was Bulgaria's first since 2008.
Bulgaria's 2017 budget targets a deficit equivalent to 1.4% of the projected GDP, which is expected to grow by a real 2.5% to 92.4 billion levs. The fresh borrowing which the government will be allowed to make in 2017 is set at 1.2 billion levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)