Huge deficit in February budget in Hungary, government explains

The National Economy Ministry confirmed in a detailed data release on Monday that Hungary’s cash flow-based general government deficit reached HUF 1,722.8bn at the end of February.

At the end of the month, the central budget had a deficit of HUF 1,683.5bn (EUR 4.23bn), so in the first two months of the year, we were at 42% of the annual draft.

The social security funds were HUF 77.3bn (EUR 190m) in the red, but separate state funds had a HUF 38.0bn surplus. The deficit widened from HUF 67.8bn at the end of January.

The ministry attributed the gap to one-offs, pointing to VAT rebate seasonality that resulted in net VAT revenue of just HUF 318.5bn, 4pc of the full-year target, as well as a HUF 536bn (EUR 1.35bn) expenditure for pensioners’ annual bonus, paid in February. The ministry said that revenue from tax and contributions had climbed 13.5pc from the same period a year earlier. Interest expenditures, primarily interest payments on retail government securities, totaled HUF 1,038.3bn (EUR 2.61bn), up HUF 182.9bn from the base period.

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Some 600,000 pensioners could avail of home renovation subsidies

Around 600,000 pensioners living in the country’s smallest settlements could avail of home renovation subsidies in a government scheme that starts on Wednesday, János Fónagy, a state secretary at the National Economy Ministry, told public radio on Monday.

The subsidies, that match up to HUF 3m of homeowners’ own spending, are available to pensioners in settlements with fewer than 5,000 residents. Applicants may pre-finance their renovation projects with state-subsidised loans.