site.btaBulgaria Runs BGN 1.9 Bln Deficit under Consolidated Fiscal Programme in First Quarter of 2025

Revenues, aid and donations received under Bulgaria’s Consolidated Fiscal Programme in the first quarter of 2025 totalled BGN 16,834.3 million, which was 18.6% of the annual target, the Finance Ministry reported on Monday. The amount increased by BGN 1,076.5 million (6.8 %) compared with the first quarter of 2024. The increase was due mainly to a rise in tax revenues, which went up by BGN 1,598.4 million (13.3%). Non-tax revenues were close to the sum reported a year earlier, while aid and donations received decreased by BGN 700,000.

Tax revenues (including social insurance contributions) in the first quarter of 2025 amounted to BGN 13,625.5 million, accounting for 19.2% of the annual target. They were 80.9% of total revenues under the Consolidated Fiscal Programme in the first three months of this year.

Non-tax revenues stood at BGN 2,458.9 million, or 20.5% of the annual plan, going up by BGN 137.1 million (5.9%) year on year. This group of revenues consisted mainly of central and local government charges, judicial fees and income from property, concessions and emissions trading, among other sources.

Revenues from aid and donations amounted to BGN 749.9 million.

Expenditures under the Consolidated Fiscal Programme (including Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget) in the first quarter of 2025 totalled BGN 18,761.0 million, which was 19.4% of the annual plan.

Bulgaria ran a budget deficit of BGN 1,926.7 million under its Consolidated Fiscal Programme in the first quarter of 2025, equivalent to 0.9% of projected GDP. The country also incurred a deficit of BGN 449.1 million in its EU funding accounts by March 2025, compared with a BGN 1,025.3 million surplus a year earlier. This was so because in March 2024 Bulgaria reported one-off revenues from EU reimbursements for considerable national expenditures made at the end of 2023, and because in the first quarter of 2025 expenditures in the country’s EU funding accounts grew considerably, partly due to a larger amount of resources absorbed under the national Recovery and Resilience Plan (from the first payment received from the EU). This created a cumulative deficit increase of BGN 1,474.4 million in Bulgaria’s EU funding accounts in January-March 2025, and hence, under the Consolidated Fiscal Programme.

Bulgaria’s fiscal reserve as at March 31, 2025, was BGN 8,992.473 million, including BGN 7,454.150 million in fiscal reserve deposits with the Bulgarian National Bank and other banks and BGN 1,538.323 million in receivables from EU funds towards certified expenditures, advance payments, etc.