Bulgaria's Fiscal Council torched the 2026 budget draft and told lawmakers to scrap it after PM Rosen Zhelyazkov got booted from office. The watchdog says revenue projections are way too optimistic and could miss targets by up to 4.7 billion euros, while spending keeps ballooning to around 5 percent of GDP. They want the government to dump automatic salary hikes that wreck the budget balance and start building bigger financial cushions instead of barely hitting the 1.5 percent GDP requirement.
Public debt is climbing at an alarming rate from 29 percent of GDP this year to 37 percent by 2028, and interest payments are about to triple from half a billion euros to 1.8 billion. The council warned that draining 100 percent of dividends from state companies will gut their ability to stay competitive, and Bulgaria might lose its reputation as a low-risk borrower if this trajectory continues. They published a separate analysis about what happens if the country enters 2026 without passing any budget at all.
Public debt is climbing at an alarming rate from 29 percent of GDP this year to 37 percent by 2028, and interest payments are about to triple from half a billion euros to 1.8 billion. The council warned that draining 100 percent of dividends from state companies will gut their ability to stay competitive, and Bulgaria might lose its reputation as a low-risk borrower if this trajectory continues. They published a separate analysis about what happens if the country enters 2026 without passing any budget at all.
