According to official data published by Eurostat on Wednesday, Bulgaria’s government deficit for 2025 amounted to 4% of gross domestic product (GDP), 0.5 percentage points higher than the preliminary estimates released in April 2026, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The figures confirm the serious fiscal imbalances and unrecorded expenditure on the balance sheet of the Road Infrastructure Agency that the current government inherited when it took office in May 2026. The excessive deficit procedure against Bulgaria stems from the state of the country’s public finances and raises serious questions about how they were managed under previous governments, the statement said.
The 2025 deficit exceeds the EU reference value of 3% of GDP, the Finance Ministry noted, adding that this raises questions about how realistically budgetary prospects and risks to the sustainability of public finances were assessed.
“Signs of mounting pressure on public expenditure were already evident in 2025, driven by public-sector wages, social benefits and public investment. However, no adequate action was taken to offset this pressure and bring public finances back into line with fiscal rules. This also raises questions about whether these risks were sufficiently taken into account when preparing the budget forecasts for the 2025–2028 period. In addition, the government incurred a record EUR 9.6 billion in new public debt in 2025,” the Ministry said.
The Finance Ministry further said that the consequences of the accumulated fiscal imbalances are carried over into the budgets of subsequent years. The unfavourable starting position limits fiscal flexibility and increases the need for consistent measures to bring the deficit under control. When the actual state of public finances differs from preliminary estimates, the impact is not limited to a single budget year but also affects the planning and execution of subsequent budgets, the Ministry said.
According to the Ministry, the deviation from the fiscal commitments set out in Bulgaria’s National Medium-Term Fiscal-Structural Plan for 2025-2028 calls for an objective assessment of budgetary management over that period. This should examine whether forecasts accurately reflected the actual risks, whether spending commitments were aligned with sustainable revenue levels, and whether timely action was taken to curb the deficit.
The Progressive Bulgaria government faces the task of taking urgent action and implementing the necessary reforms, many of which unpopular, to address the inherited fiscal imbalances. This will require realistic budget planning, strict spending constraints, difficult policy measures, transparency and fiscal discipline. The aim is to restore the sustainability of public finances and ensure that public funds are managed responsibly in Bulgaria’s long-term interests, the statement said.
Eurostat Puts Bulgaria’s 2025 Budget Deficit at 4% of GDP, Finance Ministry Says THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-10-21 15:43:56
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