Hungarian Audit Office: 2020 budget to promote ‘sustainable whitening’ of economy

The government’s 2020 budget bill “will help promote a sustainable whitening of the economy” and contribute to “predictable, stable economic processes”, the head of the State Audit Office (ÁSZ) said in the general budget debate in parliament on Thursday.

László Domokos said that the bill accorded with national and European laws and would ensure the necessary financing for the government’s social policy goals, as well as sufficient reserves to tackle unforeseeable risks.

Domokos said

currently high economic growth offered an opportunity to prepare for periods of potential downturn, and “massive” central reserves would “manage unexpected situations or economic developments caused by external causes”.

Fiscal Council

Árpád Kovács, the head of the Fiscal Council, said that the budget bill “reflects fiscal stability”. “Where there is stability, there is room for economic and social policy manoeuvres,” he said, adding that the positive tendency had characterised Hungary’s budgets “for nearly a decade”.

Kovács said that the “outstandingly high” reserves proposed in the bill would eliminate any major risks associated with the budget. Targets are in line with actual figures for 2018 as well as planned 2019 figures and 2020 forecasts, he said.

“The Hungarian economy’s foundations are stable and its vulnerability has decreased,” Kovács added.

Source: MTI