03.05.2016

The preliminary data and estimates expect for the Consolidated Fiscal Programme (CFP) balance on a cash basis as of end-April 2016 to be positive, amounting to BGN 2,348.0 million (2.6 % of the projected GDP). For comparison, a CFP deficit of BGN 1,066.6 million (1.2% of GDP) was reported in the first four months of 2015, which means that, as a relative share of GDP, the budget stance has improved by 1.4 percentage points.

The factors for the improvement in the budget stance continue to be the higher revenues and the cutting of expenditures in comparison to the same period of the previous year.

It should be noted that due to the specifics of the tax calendar and the one-off nature of some of the proceeds for the past four months and due to the shifting of a considerable part of the investment expenditures to the second half of the year, the current level of the budget surplus forecast as of April may not be interpreted as a stable trend towards an improvement in the budget balance. The good parameters of the current budget execution in the past four months should be taken as a guarantee that the budget balance envisaged for the year is achievable.

Key CFP parameters based on preliminary data and estimates:

As of end-April 2016, CFP revenues and grants are expected to be BGN 12,191.3 million (36.9% of the annual estimate), registering a growth by BGN 861.3 million as against the first four months of 2015. The growth in comparison to the previous year is due to the higher tax and non-tax revenues which have grown by BGN 1,026.7 million, whereas grant proceeds have dropped by BGN 165.4 million. 

The Consolidated Fiscal Programme expenditures, including the contribution of the Republic of Bulgaria to the EU budget, amount to BGN 9,843.3 million, as of April 2016, which accounts for 28.3% of the annual estimates. The expenditures for the same period of last year amount to BGN 10,263.4 million.

The part of Bulgaria's contribution to the EU budget, as paid as of 30 April 2016 from the central budget, amounts to BGN 294.7 million, which complies with the existing legislation in the area of EU own resources, Council Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources and Council Regulation No 1150/2000, as amended by Regulation No 2018/2004, Regulation No 105/2009 and Regulation No 1377/2014, implementing Decision 2007/436/EC.

The statistics and the Information Bulletin on the Execution of the State Budget and the key Consolidated Fiscal Programme indicators based on the monthly data on cash execution of the budgets of first-level spending units will be published on the website of the Ministry of Finance at the end of May 2016.