Budget deficit at 61 pc of full-year target in July, ministry confirms

Budapest, August 22 (MTI) – Hungary’s cashflow-based budget deficit, excluding local councils, reached 464.8 billion forints (EUR 1.49bn) in the first seven months of the year, 61 percent of the full-year target, the economy ministry confirmed in a second reading of data released on Monday.

The central budget ran a 585.8 billion forint deficit, while social insurance funds and separate state funds had surpluses of 52.5 billion forints and 68.5 billion forints, respectively.

In the first seven months of 2015, the deficit was 894.1 billion forints. The ministry attributed the difference between the January-July figures of the two years to beneficial effects from the real economy, higher tax income from the whitening of the economy and different spending allocations of the central budget.

The ministry noted that the July 2016 deficit was amongst the lowest over the last fifteen years.

Source: MTI