Hungary budget deficit at end-Q3 2.0 pc of GDP

The net financing requirement of the budget, which is a good approximation of the budget deficit, was 910 billion forints (2.71 billion euros) or 2.0 percent of GDP in the four quarters to the end of Q3, the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) said on Monday concerning preliminary data of Hungary’s financial accounts.

General government net borrowing was 228 billion forints in the third quarter itself, equalling 1.9 percent of quarterly GDP.

Hungary’s state debt stood at 66.4 percent of GDP at the end of September, down from 66.5 percent at the end of June and from 70.2 percent a year earlier.

State debt, including Eximbank data, was at 68.1 percent of GDP at the end of September, down from 68.2 percent at the end of Q2 and from 72.0 percent in Q3 2018.

Hungary’s constitution requires the year-end debt-to-GDP ratio to fall each year until it reaches 50 percent.

The NBH in 2018 started publishing separate state debt ratios, with and without the balance sheet of Magyar Eximbank, in line with a decision by Eurostat. Eurostat has for years maintained that Magyar Eximbank should be reclassified inside the general government sector, raising state debt.

In nominal value state debt was equivalent to 30,325 billion forints (EUR 90.5bn) at the end of Q3. It rose from 29,667 billion at the end of Q2 and from 29,164 billion a year earlier.

In the third quarter net borrowing increased the nominal figure by 657 billion forints, as transactions raised the stock by 425 billion and revaluations by 233 billion forints.

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Including Eximbank data the nominal value of state debt was 31,093 billion forints at the end of Q3, up from 30,422 billion at the end of Q2 and up from 29,929 billion a year earlier.

Source: mti