Bulgarian Govt Allocates Additional 58 Mln Euro to Defence Projects
Bulgaria's government said on Wednesday that it will transfer an additional 113 million levs ($65.5 million/57.8 million euro) from this year's central budget to the defence ministry, for the implementation of three projects. The largest transfer, of 58.8 million levs, is intended to finance the maintenance of the Bulgarian Air Force's aviation equipment, as well as its communication, information and navigation systems, the government said in a statement following its weekly meeting. The second project envisages supply of medical equipment and carrying out construction and repair works. The defence ministry will receive a transfer of 33.4 million levs for the project. The remaining 21.2 million levs are allocated for establishing a link between the Bulgarian military's field communication and information system to the stationary one, as well as supply of private mobile radio communication terminals. The finance ministry said earlier this month that it expects the consolidated budget to be in surplus of 2.81 billion levs at the end of November. Bulgaria's 2018 budget targets a deficit equivalent to 1.0% of the projected GDP.