Bulgaria is expected to close 2015 with consolidated budget deficit of BGN 2.29 B equivalent to 2.66% of the projected GDP, the Finance Ministry has said citing preliminary estimates.

This is an improvement on the end of 2014, when the consolidated government budget had a shortfall of BGN 3.07 B equivalent to 3.7% of GDP, according to the projection posted on the the Finance Ministry website. The ministry is expected to release end-2015 budget balance data at the end of this month.

Budget revenue is expected to total BGN 32.26B at the end of 2015, an increase of 9,7% compared with end-2014. The expected increase is mainly due to a rise in revenue from direct and indirect taxes as well as growth in proceeds from EU grants.

Budget expenditure including Bulgaria’s contribution to the EU budget is expected to total BGN 34.55 B at the end of 2015, “which is close to the plan for the year”, the Finance Ministry said. Budget spending totalled BGN 32.48 B at the end of 2014.

Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said last month that Bulgaria was expected to close 2015 with budget deficit of around 2.5-2.6 percent of GDP, or 0.7-0.8 percentage points less than projected in the revised budget for the year.

Bulgaria’s ran a consolidated budget deficit of BGN 406.4 M equivalent to 0.5% of the projected 2015 GDP at the end of November, the Finance Ministry said last week.