Eurostat revises Bulgaria's 2025 deficit to 4% over unrecorded road repair costs
The deficit is half a percentage point above April's estimate. The finance ministry says unrecorded spending on road repairs is the main reason.
Symbolic image · Photo: Българска народна банка / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
The EU statistics office Eurostat has revised Bulgaria's budget deficit for 2025 from 3.5 to 4 percent of gross domestic product. The finance ministry in Sofia announced the figure on Wednesday. It is 0.5 percentage points above the preliminary estimate from April 2026 and above the permitted limit of 3 percent. Bulgaria is already subject to an excessive deficit procedure.
The ministry named unrecorded spending on road repairs as the main cause. It spoke of serious fiscal imbalances in the balance sheet of the Road Infrastructure Agency. According to the ministry, the recalculated deficit will also weigh on budgets in the coming years and limit their flexibility.
The ministry said urgent measures and reforms were needed and acknowledged that many of them would be unpopular. It did not say which steps it had in mind. According to the news site Frognews, Bulgaria took on a record 9.6 billion euros in new state debt in 2025.