Sofia: The Bulgarian government unveiled Friday a 2016 budget based on expectations of 2.1 percent growth, coupled with a goal to bring the public deficit down to two percent of output.
The conservative cabinet of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov also revised its 2015 budget, increasing the deficit target for this year to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or above the European Union ceiling, from the previously planned 3.0 percent.
Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov argued that the deficit increase was needed to unlock funds for co-financing European projects that must be implemented by the end of 2015.
Bulgaria, the EU's poorest member state, hopes to wrap up the year with 1.4-percent growth.
It also projects GDP increases of 2.5 percent in 2017 and 2.7 percent in 2018, and budget deficits of 1.4 percent of output in 2017 and 1.0 percent in 2018.
The Sofia-based Institut for Market Economy however saw these forecasts as too optimistic, based on expectations for growth in Bulgaria's major trade partner, Germany.
The budget bill, which has yet to be approved by parliament, envisages a public debt equal to 30.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2016 -- among the lowest in the European Union.
Bulgaria, which is not a member of the eurozone, has an IMF-led currency board arrangement that ties its currency, the lev, to the euro at a fixed rate and ensures fiscal stability by severely curtailing monetary policy.
AFP
