Bulgaria's minfin expects 10-mo budget deficit of 10.2 mln euro

For October alone, the budget is expected to show a deficit of 1 billion levs, due to increased social spending including a pension hike and capital investments, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, without giving a figure for the shortfall expressed as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) projected for 2022.

Consolidated budget revenue is expected to have increased by 8.1 billion levs to 50.2 billion levs in the ten months through October, which represents an annual rise of 19.2%. At this level, the revenue is equal to 84.2% of the full-year projection.

Consolidated budget expenditure, including Bulgaria's contribution to the European Union budget, is seen at some 50.25 billion levs as at end-October, or 76.3% of the full-year projection. This compares to expenditure of some 41.4 billion levs in the first 10 months of 2021.

Part of the revenue and expenditure takes into account instalments that have been paid into the country's energy security fund by state-owned energy enterprises on a monthly basis since July, the ministry noted. Such payments were not made in 2021.

The consolidated budget showed a surplus of 989.2 million levs in the first nine months of 2022, equivalent to 0.6% of the planned GDP for 2022, the finance ministry said in a separate statement on Monday.

Compared to end-September 2021, revenue grew by roughly 7.2 billion levs, or 18.9%, whereas expenditure rose to 44 billion levs from 36.8 billion levs in the first nine months of last year. Revenue stood at 75.4% of revised annual projections, while expenditure amounted to 66.8% of the projections.

Bulgaria's contribution to the EU budget, paid as at September 30, was 1.24 billion levs in total.

The end-September fiscal reserve stood at 13.2 billion levs, including some 300 million levs of receivables under the EU funds, the ministry noted.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)