SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria expects a fiscal surplus equal to 0.7% of gross domestic product in January after one-off spending on war planes forced it to end 2019 with a budget shortfall of 1% of GDP, the finance ministry said on Friday.
Sofia, which is preparing to enter the eurozone's "waiting room", the ERM-2 mechanism, in April, aims to balance its fiscal books in 2020 and keep it that way till 2023, when it hopes to adopt the euro.
The finance ministry expects the small, open economy growing by 3.3% this year and to maintain a similar growth rate over the next three years.
Bulgaria's consolidated fiscal program recorded a shortfall of 1.2 billion levs ($681 million) or 0.97% of GDP last year, the ministry said in a statement.
Government revenues were 44 billion levs last year, up 11% compared to 2018. Spending was 45.2 billion levs, up 14% on the year, mainly due to the purchase of eight new F-16 fighter jets and a 10% increase in public sector salaries, finance ministry data showed.
The fiscal reserves, held under a currency regime pegging the lev to the euro, stood at 8.8 billion levs at the end of December.