site.btaBulgaria Took on More Public Debt in Six Months Than in Pаst Three Years - Assen Vassilev

The leader of Continue the Change party, Asen Vassilev, said here Tuesday that over the past six months Bulgaria has taken on more public debt than it did during the previous three years combined. In a video published on the party’s official Facebook page, Vassilev, who is a former Finance Minister, addressed Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, questioning how over BGN 16.5 billion borrowed since the adoption of the 2025 state budget, have been spent.

Vassilev cited specific examples of how BGN 15.5 billion were utilized in 2022, 2023, and 2024. According to him, the money went to nearly double pensions and salaries, provide tax relief for young families, free textbooks for 1st to 12th-graders, and BGN 300 for each child in grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8. He also noted that the budget of the Road Infrastructure Agency increased from BGN 350 million to BGN 4 billion, over BGN 1 billion was allocated for new trains for the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), and funding was provided for purchasing medical helicopters and more than 4,000 new ambulances.

On Monday, the Ministry of Finance issued BGN 300 million in new domestic debt with an average annual yield of 2.40%. The offering consisted of three-year interest-bearing government securities from issue No. BG 20 300 25 113 dated January 22, 2025, with an annual interest rate of 2.75% and a total volume of BGN 300 million.

According to a BTA review of Finance Ministry data, this was the tenth debt auction on the domestic market in 2025. So far this year, BGN 2.4 billion in new debt has been raised on the domestic market.

The Finance Ministry has also carried out two debt operations on international capital markets. In April, BGN 7.82 billion (EUR 4 billion) in debt was raised, followed by EUR 3.2 billion (BGN 6.25 billion) in July.

As a result, since the beginning of 2025, Bulgaria has taken on nearly BGN 16.5 billion in new debt. The maximum permissible amount of new public debt for the year is BGN 18.9 billion.