Balanced budget necessary, says Fiscal Council chief

Budapest, March 22 (MTI) – It is both possible and necessary to plan for a budget with no deficit, head of the Fiscal Council Árpád Kovács told public radio on Tuesday.

Sooner or later Hungary must stand on its own two feet, and while previously privatisation revenues and debt reductions contributed to the sustainability of GDP, now European Union funds are doing the same, he said. Even if EU funding remains after 2020, it will be structured differently and on a different scale, he added.

“It would be good to be able to say that this is not what produces 1.5-2 percent extra GDP growth but our own performance,” Kovács said.

He noted that a balanced budget would mean that the country only consumes what the economy can produce rather than relying on one-off items or loans for extra resources. Other European countries are striving to achieve this, he said.

In April the Fiscal Council will have received next year’s draft budget for review, he noted.

Kovács said this year budgetary developments are far more favourable in terms of expenditure and revenues, and this could give an impulse towards plans to draw up a more balanced budget.

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