10.01.2017

The European Commission has published its annual report Debt Sustainability Monitor 2016. The report evaluates the challenges to fiscal sustainability faced by EU Member States on the basis of the 2016 Autumn Macroeconomic Forecast of the Commission as well as of the projections of population ageing costs in the individual countries.

In regard to Bulgaria, the Commission has confirmed the estimate of the Ministry of Finance that there is a low level of risk to the short-term and medium-term sustainability of public finance. At the same time, the Commission has improved its estimate of the long-term fiscal sustainability of the country, moving Bulgaria from medium to low risk category. Such an improvement, as compared to the estimates in the Fiscal Sustainability Report 2015, is reported only for Sweden while for the other countries there is no change in the level of risk to their long-term fiscal sustainability, with the exception of Hungary whose estimate has worsened.