The government is warning of a record budget deficit and signaling possible fiscal tightening measures, as officials and experts debate the scale of Bulgaria’s public finance challenges.
Finance Minister Galab Donev said the country is facing a deficit of around 7.4% of GDP, or more than 8.5 billion euros, alongside over 2 billion euros in unpaid liabilities left from previous administrations. He argued that additional borrowing is unavoidable to ensure the stability of state payments, including social transfers in the coming months. “We are currently on the day after the end of the celebration. We ate, drank and made merry for three days,” he said.
The European Commission has already signaled the possibility of placing Bulgaria under an excessive deficit procedure, increasing pressure on fiscal authorities to present corrective measures.
Financial journalist Petar Iliev described the government’s messaging as inconsistent, pointing to contradictions between promises to cut spending and commitments to protect pensions and delegated budgets. He questioned where actual savings would be made, given that wages and pensions make up a large share of public expenditure.
From the perspective of business representatives, Mihail Krastev of the Union for Business Initiative said the situation is more severe than officially presented. He argued that the deficit figures are influenced by accounting operations such as bank-related fiscal measures and one-off transfers, which obscure the underlying imbalance. According to him, the real deficit, excluding such operations, exceeds 5%.
