At the end of February, Bulgaria’s budget recorded a deficit of 1 billion leva (500 million euros), a significant increase compared to February 2024, once one-off effects are excluded. This marks a shift from the surplus seen in January, when the treasury had a balance of 563.9 million leva under the consolidated fiscal program, which includes all state and local budgets, social security funds, and EU funds.

The national budget showed a surplus of 781.2 million leva, largely driven by an unexpected 348.6 million leva donation to the Ministry of Defense and a 432.9 million leva surplus in municipal budgets. Social security funds also performed positively, with a surplus of 150.5 million leva. Despite this, the state budget's surplus was more modest at 97.3 million leva. Universities and scientific institutes reported a positive balance of 94.8 million leva. However, the deficit in EU funds reached 217 million leva, reducing the overall surplus for January to 563.9 million leva.

By February, the situation worsened, with a deficit of 1.6 billion leva for the month, pushing the final balance to a 1 billion leva deficit by the end of February, equivalent to 0.5% of GDP. For comparison, the deficit in February 2024 was just 0.1% of GDP, or 200 million leva, once one-off effects were removed.

Today, the plenary session is expected to start discussing the first reading of the 2025 budget draft, which had already passed through committees last week.