Századvég projects further decline in budget deficit

Budapest, April 1 (MTI) – Hungary’s budget deficit, calculated according to European Union methodology, is expected to further decrease in 2016, to 1.6 percent of GDP, while the public debt may decline to 73.2 percent of GDP, economic researcher Századvég said on Friday.

The 2015 budget deficit was 1.9 per cent of GDP, 0.5 percentage points less than previously planned so Hungary could fulfil the related Maastricht criterion, it said in a statement on Friday.

Hungary’s public debt dropped by nearly 1 percentage point last year compared to 2014. The decline was due to good economic performance and the whitening of the economy, which resulted partly from the introduction of electronic tills, Századvég said.

The 2015 year-end deficit of the government sector was 625.5 billion forints (EUR 2bn), which was less than one year earlier in nominal terms and also in proportion of GDP, it said.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters