The 2027 budget will include both fiscal consolidation measures and a large social package, deputy prime minister Atanas Pekanov wrote on Facebook.
The finance ministry will present the budget on Friday at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE), together with the prime minister and cabinet ministers.
Pekanov says the structural problems in public finances come from budget decisions made between 2020 and mid-2026. He cites an analysis which shows that state spending on staff rose by 114%, from €5.81bn (11.37bn leva) to €12.42bn (24.3bn leva). That is a rise of nearly €6.65bn (13bn leva).
According to the analysis, this spending grew 25.3 percentage points faster than tax revenue and outpaced economic growth. The deputy prime minister says the main cause is the rules that raise pay automatically, which turn the spending into a permanent commitment.
In 2025, more than 90% of the rise came from 11 of the 45 budget spending units, the bodies that spend state money. About 60% of this rise was in defence and security.
Pekanov also says tax decisions cut revenue and that little was done to give the state a more stable base. The reduced VAT rates cost the budget €757m (1.48bn leva), and the higher VAT registration threshold cost another €726m (1.42bn leva). Taken together, the measures in the analysis added only €22.96m (44.9m leva) to tax and social security revenue.
Spending by the state social security system (DOO) rose by 91%, from €7.30bn (14.28bn leva) to €13.95bn (27.28bn leva). Contributions cover 54.9% of it, down from 59.9% in 2020. DOO relies on the state budget for more than €6.14bn (12bn leva) a year.
The transfer from the budget, which covers the DOO deficit, weighs more and more on spending, the deputy prime minister says. He says the audit also shows that the contributions a person pays have less and less effect on the size of their pension.
Governments in this period planned investment programmes without enough funding, Pekanov says. He calls the budget of the Road Infrastructure Agency "particularly problematic": final approval of work already done was put off, and costs were not booked on time.
He says income and social policy were run without funds to back them, and that state debt became a way to cover the budget's day-to-day needs. "It is like eating lunch in the ministers' canteen and then leaving office without paying," he wrote. He added: "Someday this bill has to be paid - with a higher deficit and debt, with spending cuts or with higher taxes."
Many experts who spoke about these problems have now forgotten them "out of fear of the coming communism" or because of the "daily hysteria against the government", Pekanov says.
Representatives of several parliamentary groups object to UNWE as the venue for the presentation. Pekanov replied that a presentation at the biggest economics university is clear and open, unlike one "at a lectern in the ministry" or in the Granite Hall. He says people should talk about the three National Audit Office reports published since the start of the week, not the venue.