September 11 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's finance minister Vladislav Goranov said on Tuesday that the country is likely to end the year with a balanced budget or a surplus, instead of the government's initial projection of a deficit equivalent to 1% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Last month, the finance ministry said it expects the consolidated budget to be in surplus of 2.47 billion levs ($1.46 billion/1.26 billion euro) at the end of August, equivalent to 2.4% of the projected 2018 GDP.
One-third of the budget surplus recorded at the end of August is a result of improved tax collection, while the remainder is due to expenditure that has been budgeted but not made, part of it related to EU funds, Goranov said.
Bulgaria's 2018 budget targets a deficit equivalent to 1.0% of the projected GDP, which is expected to grow by a real 3.9% year-on-year to 105.6 billion levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)