Bulgarian PM Vows No More Budget Revisions in 2013

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski addressing Parliament. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski has assured that there will be no more budget revisions until the end of 2013.

Oresharski said that just minutes after he told reporters that he "was not sure" whether there would be more budget actualizations by the end of the year.

Bulgaria’s parliament overturned on Friday the presidential veto on the budget revision after securing the votes of 130 MPs. Members of parliament from the ruling Socialist and ethnic Turkish parties, together with the nationalists, united to overturn the veto.

The ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement for Rights and Freedoms have exactly 120 MPs in the 240-seat Parliament. But to overcome a presidential veto, an absolute majority of at least 121 MPs was needed.

The Socialists and the Movement thus relied on votes by ultranationalists Ataka, who expectedly supported them.

Adopted at the end of last month by the Socialist-led government, the amendments pave the way for a spending deficit of 2% of GDP as opposed to 1.4%, which was to be financed by external debt.

The budget revision provides for a new loan in the amount of BGN 1 B to be used as a buffer for the fiscal reserve in 2014, when Bulgaria must make new payments on its foreign debt. Other funds will be slated for the overdue money for the business and for social measures.

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