Bulgaria's 7-mo Budget Surplus Expands to 3.7%/GDP - Prelim Data
Bulgaria's January-July consolidated budget surplus is seen reaching 3.27 billion levs ($1.9 billion/1.7 billion euro), or 3.7% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 789.5 billion levs, or 0.9% of GDP, in the same period of 2015, preliminary estimates of the country's finance ministry showed on Friday.
The improvement is driven by higher revenues and lower expenses, the ministry said in a statement, but underscored that a significant portion of the government's capital expenditure has been delayed for the fourth quarter of the year.
Bulgaria aims at a budget gap of 2% of GDP this year, down from 2.9% in 2015.
The country's consolidated revenue for January-July is estimated at 20.54 billion levs, equal to 62.2% of the full-year plan, and up by 1.52 billion levs from the same period of 2015. Expenditure is calculated at 17.27 billion levs, or 49.6% of the full-year budget, down from 18.23 billion levs a year ago.
The contribution of Bulgaria to the EU budget as of end-July amounted to 467 million levs.
In a separate statement, the ministry said that final data for January-June shows a consolidated budget surplus of 3.07 billion levs, or 3.4% of GDP, up from 889.5 million levs, or 1.0% of GDP, in the same period of 2015.
Consolidated budget revenue rose 8.6% on the year to 17.71 billion levs, whereas expenditure fell 5% to 14.64 billion levs.
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