site.btaFuture Government Will Decide How to Use EUR 1.4 Bln Locked in Bulgarian Development Bank - Finance Minister

The future government will decide how to use the EUR 1.4 billion returned to the state budget, which had been locked at the Bulgarian Development Bank, said caretaker Finance Minister Georgi Klisurski at a briefing at the Council of Ministers.

On Wednesday, the caretaker cabinet decided to return to the state budget the unused capital that the Bulgarian Development Bank received from the cabinet of Rosen Zhelyazkov last year, the minister said. Klisurski recalled that in 2025 the government increased the capital of the Bank by nearly EUR 2 billion. As of today, eight months later, the bank has utilized EUR 600 million of that amount. The remaining EUR 1.4 billion remains unused and locked in the fiscal reserve—neither the Bank is using it, nor can the state access this resource, the Minister explained.

He said that in the eight months since the Bank’s capital was increased, the bank has not indicated how it could use these funds to implement its strategy and support the development of the Bulgarian economy.

According to Klisurski, this resource could serve the Bulgarian economy and citizens by being used for all payments in the country, as well as for completing payments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. A very good use of these funds would be refinancing the investments that the state must make under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Klisurski said, adding that all investments under the Plan must be completed by August 2026.

The final fifth payment under the Plan is expected at the end of the year, while the fourth around the end of June. Therefore, the state will have to use other domestic resources to make the initial investments before receiving the payments from Europe, the minister noted.

He said that the EUR 1.4 billion could be used by the next government to complete these investments, as well as for everything else in the state, such as anti-crisis measures, pensions, and even salaries. “Taxpayers’ funds will effectively be able to work for them,” the Minister said.