Rositsa Velkova: The state budget will not be updated

A budget update is impossible to develop. This was announced by Finance Minister Rositsa Velkova-Zeleva.

"Revenues are extremely stretched, we do not expect to overperform. And for there to be an update, there has to be a revenue overrun," she explained.

"There will be savings around capital expenditure, but they won't be large. The caretaker government will reallocate funds from the budget to finance other contingencies. Such were needed for the organisation of the early elections".

No debt will be taken out to finance new spending, the minister added.

Inflation is driven by energy and food prices.

"We expect it to fall in 2023 because of a contraction in consumption," Velkova said.

Velkova noted that there is speculation on the topic of surpluses in capital expenditure. "The thesis is evolving, as the budget has voted funds for capital expenditure of more than 8 billion BGN 4 billion BGN of them are European funds, which cannot be restructured even if there are savings. 1.1 billion BGN are the municipal expenditures, which also cannot be restructured, and 1.2 billion BGNis the cost of the regional ministry. 1.1 billion BGN is also capital expenditure in the defense and security sector. That is, there is no way to make savings there," the caretaker finance minister further stressed and added: "There are also many unforeseen expenses that the caretaker cabinet has to undertake. So are the costs of the early parliamentary elections. Costs for the integration of Ukrainian refugees are yet to be identified."