Bulgarian Parliament Adopts 2012 Budget Bill
Bulgaria's Parliament passed the 2012 budget bill envisaging budget deficit of 1.56 billion levs ($1.03 billion/751.6 million euro).
Next year's budget bill sets revenue at 17.0 billion levs, whereas expenditures, transfers and contributions to the EU budget are projected at 18.6 billion levs, Parliament said in a statement.
The budget gap is equivalent to 1.3% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP) and economic growth is set at 2.3%, state-run television BNT reported.
End-2012 inflation is expected to reach 2.8%.
The fiscal reserve will remain at 4.5 billion levs.
The biggest amount of funding in next year's budget is allocated to the defence, interior and social ministries. Healthcare and education establishments will receive more money than they did under this year's budget.