Bulgaria's fiscal reserve decreases by BGN 1.2 bn in two months

“Bulgaria’s fiscal reserve stands at BGN 3.8 bn, having decreased by BGN 1.2 bn since December 2011,” Menda Stoyanova, Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee, said on BNR. According to her, however, the decrease is due to the effected advance payments to farmers and foreign debt payments, which will be compensated in the coming months. Let us remind our readers that, according to official data of Ministry of Finance, the fiscal reserve stood at BGN 5 bn on December 31, 2011.

”When you run out of reserve, the risk component of the fiscal position becomes very high and even small jolts can upset the smooth functioning of the economic system. Over the last two years and a half, the internal debt increased by BGN 2 bn and the fiscal reserve dropped by BGN 3-4 bn. A total of BGN 5-6 bn was spent by GERB’s Government without a sound reason,” argued former Finance Minister and left-wing MP Plamen Oresharski.

According to Finance Ministry data, public debt stood at €5.945 bn at the end of December, the internal debt amounting to €2.458 bn and the external debt – to €3.487 bn. In nominal terms, the debt increased by €331.8 mln, compared to November, which was mainly due to the rise in the internal debt as a result of new domestic financing. At the end of last year, public debt amounted to 15.3% of GDP.