SOFIA: Bulgaria's parliament approved a state budget bill on Saturday that aims to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3 percent of the gross domestic product from a revised 3.7 percent this year.
The bill assumes that Bulgaria's economic growth in 2015 will stand at 0.8 percent, down from 1.5 percent in 2014, mainly due to an expected slowdown in the euro zone, the Balkan country's key trading partner.
"I will not claim that it is a good budget, but this is a realistic budget," Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said.
Analysts have largely welcomed the bill for its rather conservative macroeconomic assumptions, a sharp contrast to those of the previous Socialist-led government, but also said it did not spell out any reform plans.
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov came to power after a snap election in October, promising reforms to spur growth. But his minority coalition is shaky and a proposal to lift the retirement age by four months was dropped after union protests in favour of more talks next year over broader reforms.
Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union, needs to run a tight fiscal policy to preserve the lev currency's peg to the euro through a currency board.
The minimum monthly wage will be increase two times next year - by 20 levs to 360 levs ($225) as of January and to 380 levs as of July.
On Friday, Fitch Ratings affirmed Bulgaria's long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) at 'BBB-'and 'BBB' respectively. The ratings outlook was stable.
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