Bulgaria's finmin sees Jan-Nov budget surplus at 2.3%/GDP

Consolidated budget revenue in the eleven months through November is expected to come in at 31.9 billion levs, equal to 90% of the 2017 plan, the finance ministry said in a statement citing preliminary estimates.

Consolidated budget expenditures are projected to total 29.6 billion levs in the January-November period, or 80.4% of the full-year plan.

In a separate statement, the ministry said that final figures for the period January-October show a consolidated budget surplus of 2.5 billion levs, equivalent to 2.5% of the GDP. Consolidated budget revenue in the period came in at 29.16 billion levs, while budget expenditures totalled 24.5 billion levs.

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 maximum amount of fresh borrowing which the government can make in 2017 is set at 1.2 billion levs.

Last year, Bulgaria's consolidated budget showed a surplus of 3.47 billion levs, or 3.8% of GDP, in the first eleven months of 2016, according to finance ministry data.

The consolidated budget showed a surplus equivalent to 1.6% of GDP in 2016, compared to a deficit of 2.8% of GDP in 2015. The turnaround to end-year budget surplus was Bulgaria's first since 2008.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)