After another 300 million loan, the national debt will exceed 17 billion BGN

The Ministry of Finance (MF) is preparing to take out another BGN 300 million loan. The auction, scheduled for November 17 (Monday), will be the 13th on the domestic market this year, with a total value of BGN 3.3 billion. However, if external issues are added, the country's new debt accumulated since the beginning of the year approaches BGN 17.3 billion.

The planned issue is unlikely to be the last for this year, as the 2025 Budget Act stipulates that the ceiling for new debt is BGN 18.9 billion.

A check by Economic.bg on the website of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) shows that the last five auctions were all for 300 million. During the year, there was only one larger domestic loan of BGN 500 million, which was successfully drawn in April.

The current auction is for seven-year government securities (GS) maturing on January 29, 2032, with an annual interest rate of 3.25%.

This year, the Zhelyazkov cabinet adopted a strategy to reduce the budget deficit on paper by allocating BGN 7 billion for the capitalisation of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and other state-owned companies. These companies will subsequently finance various projects that would otherwise be covered by the state budget – so on paper the budget deficit is smaller, but taxpayers are footing the bill.

The scheme will be repeated in 2026, with BGN 5 billion earmarked for this purpose out of a total of over BGN 20 billion in new debt.

Translated with DeepL.