Parliament Approves in Principle Revised State Budget

The National Assembly passed in principle on Thursday a controversial budget revision which provides for borrowing up to 1.0 billion levs. 

The loan would be used as a buffer for the fiscal reserve to offset possible liquidity risks in 2014, when Bulgaria must make new payments on its foreign debt. 

The revised budget sets deficit at 2.0% of the projected gross domestic product, up from the current 1.3%. 

Some 160.4 million leva will be allocated for overdue payments to businesses. A further 40 million leva will go for social payments to the most vulnerable groups.

The MPs of the centre-right GERB party voted against the budget update, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ethnic Turks’ Movement for Rights and Freedoms backed it, and nine Ataka MPs and one GERB MP abstained from voting, the Bulgarian News Agency reported.