February 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's consolidated budget is expected to be in surplus of 470 million levs ($261.5 million/240.3 million euro) as at the end of January 2023, dropping significantly from 937 million levs a year earlier because of additional costs of about 1 billion levs, the finance ministry said.
The surplus for January 2023 is equivalent to 0.3% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP), the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, citing preliminary data.
Consolidated budget expenditure is estimated at 4.37 billion levs as at the end of January, up from 3.38 billion levs a year earlier. The rise is mainly due to a nominal increase of 370 million levs in pension payments and nominal growth of 250 million levs in subsidies. The higher subsidies result from programmes for paying compensation to electricity consumers outside the regulated markets, the ministry said.
Consolidated budget revenue is seen at 4.84 billion levs, which is by 515 million levs higher than the level a year earlier.
The ministry said in a separate statement on Tuesday that Bulgaria’s consolidated budget is expected to be in deficit equivalent to 2.9% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP) as of the end of 2022.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)