Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Finance Minister Petkova defends the parameters of the 2025 draft budget

Caretaker Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova
Photo: BTA

Caretaker Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova defended the parameters of the 2025 draft budget before the members of the National Assembly Committee on Budget and Finance. Minister Petkova explained that the 2025 Budget reflects the policies of recent years. Although the expenditures significantly exceed the revenues by 18 billion BGN (EUR 9.2 billion), the caretaker government submitted a budget with a deficit of 3% of the GDP, Lyudmila Petkova said. She reminded that the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan will end in mid-2026. 

So far, Bulgaria has received two payments under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, totaling 2.7 billion BGN (EUR 1.38 billion), while 7.8 billion leva (EUR 3.99 billion) are yet to be received. According to her, the main problem of the plan is its wrong overall philosophy. "From the very beginning, the plan included difficult reforms that cannot be implemented", said Minister Petkova, noting that other EU member states included such difficult reforms at a later stage, reported BGNES. Lyudmila Petkova emphasized that Bulgaria is the only country that has not adopted the RePowerEU chapter. She also noted that the gray economy in Bulgaria is over 32% of the GDP, while in Croatia and Romania it is 28% of the GDP. According to her, "chaotic policies and legislation have been adopted in the country in recent years".




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Myara agency: Crimes and incidents continue to be a major source of tension

Social tensions from 1 July until 30 September this year are estimated at an index of 6.09, meaning “risks that are difficult to control”, on a scale of 1 to 210, indicates a survey by the sociological agency Myara, the Bulgarian news agency BTA..

published on 10/21/25 4:09 PM
Parliament building

The ruling coalition discuss the future of the cabinet behind closed doors

A meeting of the coalition partners took place early this morning, during a sitting of the National Assembly, to discuss the possible reformatting of the government. Such a change was first made mention of by GERB leader Boyko Borissov after his party..

updated on 10/21/25 3:12 PM

Within the space of 1 month, Bulgaria is mentioned 7 times as a country connected with dangerous food

In September, Bulgaria was mentioned as a country connected with dangerous food 7 times, indicate data of the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), BNR’s Vesselina Milanova reports. Over the same period this country has reported..

published on 10/21/25 3:09 PM