CHISINAU (Moldova), August 1 (SeeNews) – Moldova's parliament approved on first reading a revision of the 2019 state budget increasing the target deficit by 164.6 million Moldovan lei ($9.3 million/8.4 million euro) to 5.703 billion lei to reflect updated macroeconomic forecasts and trends in the budget execution since the beginning of the year, the finance ministry said.
The revised budget envisages revenue of 40.633 billion lei - 1.492 billion lei less than initially planned, and a decline in expenses by 1.327 billion lei to 46.337 billion lei, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The budget revenue will be reduced due to lower income from projects financed from external sources, lower income from taxes and fees, and a smaller-than-expected volume of grants, the ministry added.
The budget revision needs to be approved on second reading to come into force.
Moldova recorded a budget deficit of 2.1 billion lei in the first half of 2019, according to data from the finance ministry.
(1 euro = 19.5551 euro)