According to preliminary data of Bulgaria's Finance Ministry, the country will register a budget surplus of BGN 250 M for the first quarter of the new year.

This will be the first surplus recorded in the first quarter of the year since 2009, the ministry's press service reports.

This is a significant improvement compared to the same period in 2014, when a deficit of BGN 874.7 M was registered.

The improvement is largely due to the higher revenues, with BGN 340 M worth of incomes registered by the revenue administration only in the last two days of March.

The revenues to the consolidated fiscal programme by the end of March are estimated to be BGN 7 780 M, which represents a nominal increase of 18.3 % compared to the same period in 2014.

The payments, which were restored by the European Commission under certain operational programmes, have also contributed to the improvement.

The expenses under the consolidated fiscal programme by the end of March are projected to be BGN 7 530 M, which is close to the value, which was registered in the same period last year.