SOFIA: Bulgaria's fiscal deficit this year will be well below its target of 2 percent of gross domestic product due to above-forecast tax revenues in the first half of the year, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said on Thursday. He expected a surplus of about 3.5 percent in that period, he told an economic forum.
"I can say that we will be far from a deficit of 2 percent. It is still early to say by how much, but will be far from 2 percent," he said.
"This is a serious result which guarantees the stabilising of the public finances." The finance ministry is expected to publish its official forecast for the first half of the year later on Thursday along with a report on budget execution to the end of May.
Improved tax collection, mainly due to tightened controls on excise duties and steps to fight tax evasion, as well as spending cuts and delayed payments lifted Bulgaria's surplus to 2.6 percent of GDP in the first four months of the year.
It ended 2015 with a fiscal shortfall of 2.9 percent of GDP and plans to gradually decrease that to 0.5 percent in 2019 and protect its currency's peg to the euro.
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