Hungarian budget deficit grows in March on pandemic measures

Hungary’s cash flow-based budget deficit, excluding local councils, reached 831.9 billion forints (EUR 2.3bn) at the end of March, swelling on the impact of pandemic measures, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

Measures the government has taken so far to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and protect the economy, such as a moratorium on repayments of corporate and retail loans and support for sectors of the economy hardest hit by the pandemic, “have impacted the revenue and expenditure sides of the budget to a significant degree”, the ministry said.

The ministry noted that government expenditures on procurements of personal protective equipment and ventilators came close to 190 billion forints in March.

The central budget deficit reached 746.7 billion forints at the end of March and the social insurance funds were 86.9 billion forints in the red. Separate state funds had a surplus of 1.7 billion forints.