Bulgaria's finance ministry reported a fiscal surplus of 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the first four months of 2015 and said it expected an even higher surplus at the end of May.
The surplus stood at 1.07 billion levs ($601 million at the end of April compared with a shortfall of 865 million for the same period a year ago, mainly due to higher tax revenue and inflows of European Union aid, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry forecast a fiscal surplus of 1.4 percent of GDP for January-May due to improved tax collection, which would be the biggest surplus for the period since 2008, it said.
That would put the Balkan country on track to meet its target for a fiscal deficit of 3 percent of GDP this year and help it target a further reduction to 2.5 percent in 2016. The European Union's poorest member ended 2014 with a fiscal shortfall worth 3.7 percent of GDP, partly due to political instability and the collapse of the country's fourth-largest lender, Corporate Commercial Bank.
Government revenue in the first four months rose 19.8 percent from a year before to 11.3 billion levs, while spending fell 0.5 percent to 10.3 billion, data showed. Tax revenue surged 10.8 percent in January-May from a year earlier. The fiscal reserves the country is obliged to keep as part of its currency regime pegging the lev to the euro stood at 11.1 billion levs at the end of April. The government expects the Bulgarian economy to grow 1.4 percent this year, down from 1.7 percent in 2014.
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