Bulgaria reports a budget surplus after three years of deficit

Bulgaria reported a budged surplus for the first five months of the year, after more than three years of deficit. Surplus had been recorded only in individual calendar months during the 3-year period.

The good news came from the data on the performance of the financial plan of the country, published on the website of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday. A budged surplus of BGN 67 mln was reported for the period January –May 2012, which is mainly due to a surplus in the national budget of BGN 334.5 mln and a shortage of European funding of BGN 267 mln. May was the second consecutive month with a surplus of BGN 284.4 mln, since a surplus of BGN 470.1 mln was reported in April. This is the largest monthly surplus recorded since January 2009.

In January, the deficit was the highest - BGN 297.8 mln, in February it stood at BGN 267.2 mln, and in March – at BGN 122.2 mln. The fiscal reserve at the end of May was BGN 5 bn.

The budget balance was positive and amounted to BGN 183.8 mln at the end of June 2009. An acute deterioration followed and we ended 2009 with a deficit of BGN 529.5 mln. In 2010, the shortfall in the budget swelled to a record breaking figure of BGN 2.783 bn, and in 2011 we managed to reduce it to BGN 1.58 bn. In 2008, the year of the onset of the global financial crisis, which started with the collapse of Lehman Brothers – the budged recorded a surplus of BGN 2 bn and the country’s fiscal reserve stood at BGN 8.39.

The high revenues for the first five months of the year put on the agenda the issue of the lower VAT. Only a few months ago, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said that he would like to reduce the VAT by at least 1% if the implementation of the budget was good and revenues went up. Officials from the Ministry of Finance did not respond to the official question of Klassa.bg on Tuesday whether after the positive results such a decision would be taken and when.

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