Economy minister: Public finances outperform expectations
Budapest, April 1 (MTI) – The Hungarian economy is progressing along a sustainable and stable path, and this is partly thanks to last year’s public finance data which outperformed expectations, Economy Minister Mihály Varga told a news conference on Friday.
According to European Union methodology, Hungary’s budget deficit came to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product last year.
Varga said the public finances were also on favourable track from the point of view of the public debt which declined to 75.3 percent of GDP, a better position than the European average.
He noted the government’s plan to achieve a balanced budget in 2017. The whitening of the economy, the expansion of employment and consumption, the country’s export performance, as well as output of the vehicle industry, pharmaceuticals and food industry are the main contributors to the improved metrics, he added.
Péter Benő Banai, economic state secretary, told the press conference that the country’s vulnerability had declined and that FX debt had fallen by a third within Hungary’s debt stock.
Hungary’s budget deficit of 625.5 billion forints was 1.9 percent of GDP, calculated according to European Union ESA 2010 methodology, preliminary data released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on Friday show. KSH reported the figures to the EU statistics office Eurostat in line with Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) regulations.
The annual deficit was below the 2.4 percent government target, and was the lowest ratio in more than 16 years.
Photo: MTI
Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters
