Finance Minister: April Budget Deficit Reduced to Zero, No Need to Draw from Fiscal Reserve to Cover Spending

The caretaker Minister of Finance, Georgi Klisurski, has announced that there is no need to approve the use of funds from the fiscal reserve this month, as the state budget deficit for April has been reduced to zero.

Speaking at a briefing in the Council of Ministers on April 29, he said that revenues for the month are expected to fully cover government expenditure.

“Today I will present a decision of the Council of Ministers that was not actually adopted, because there was no need for it,” he said. “There is no need this month to approve the use of funds from the fiscal reserve to cover expenses for April.”

There is no need, because we have reduced the state budget deficit for April to zero. In other words, we expect state budget revenues for this month to fully cover state budget expenditure.

This marks a difference compared with the previous two months — February and March. In February, the last month in which the “Zhelyazkov” cabinet was in office, just one week after the caretaker government took over, we had to adopt a decision approving the use of up to €900 million from the fiscal reserve in order to cover expenditures that revenues could not meet during that month.

Then, in March, we attempted to reduce this deficit and succeeded — the amount decreased from €900 million to €600 million that would have needed to be drawn from the fiscal reserve.

And I am pleased to announce today that for April we have no need at all to use resources from the fiscal reserve. Accordingly, no such decision is being adopted,” explained Georgi Klisurski.