site.btaFinance Minister Estimates 2016 Budget Deficit of 2 Per Cent, More Money for Education, Infrastructure

Finance Minister Estimates 2016 Budget Deficit of 2 Per Cent, More Money for Education, Infrastructure

Sofia, October 9 (BTA) - Limiting the budget deficit to about 2
per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and more money for
education and infrastructure are the estimates of Finance
Minister Vladislav Goranov for next year's budget. The draft
budget will be submitted to Parliament by the end of October. On
 Friday the Finance Minister launched a series of meetings with
the political forces which will continue next week in the
Finance Ministry at political and expert level.

Emerging from a meeting with the parliamentary group of the
Patriotic Front, Goranov said that for him priority areas are
the human capital and education, and infrastructure, and
striking the best possible balance between the two.

However, Goranov noted that most of the parties that support the
 government want greater resources for the defence and security
sectors. If this is the chosen priority, more money will go
there, he said, noting that he was not sure this should be the
Bulgarian national priority.

Commenting the possibility for paying Christmas bonuses on
pensions, Goranov said he is working to provide about 50 million
 leva which will make it possible to repeat the sums given out
as Easter bonuses.

The Patriotic Front insists on more money for defence, the
Interior Ministry and education, its leader, Valeri Simeonov
said. Simeonov praised the Minister for the effort to coordinate
 beforehand the parameters of the budget with the parties in
governance. He said that the Patriotic Front pays attention not
only on spending but on the ways to ensure more budget reveneue.