The boastfully advertised budgets with a deficit of 3% over the past five years are the result of payments for millions and billions of levs postponed and transferred to the next year. The financial reality at the moment is a deficit of 7.4% if the current policies are maintained and without taking measures to consolidate state spending. This is over 1.5 billion euros. This was said by Finance Minister Galab Donev at a briefing after the regular meeting of the Council of Ministers.
According to him, another 2.2 billion levs of unpaid expenses are added to them - funds for already invoiced but unpaid activities. He defined them as “expenditures hidden in drawers“ and which are only now coming to light.
“I am very closely following the discussion that has flared up in recent days regarding the expected procedure that the European Commission will announce with the report on the European Semester - the excessive deficit procedure. For me and for “Progressive Bulgaria“ this is a known scenario. It strikes me that it causes a strong surprise, above all, among those responsible for the current financial situation. And the more aggressive the political tone with which magical solutions are offered, the more sympathetic to the problems the analysts and commentators of the decisions that led to this situation seem to be,“ Donev also stated.
In his words, it was payments postponed in 2024, 2025 and 2026 that were brought to light after the regular government took office on May 8, 2026.
The minister specified that the mentioned 2.2 billion leva include invoiced but unpaid projects of the “Road Infrastructure“ Agency, as well as projects of the municipalities included in the State Budget Act of Bulgaria.