Hungary’s finance minsitry: huge budget deficit of €5.9 billion in March

Hungary’s cash flow-based budget, excluding local councils, posted a deficit of 2,321.4 billion forints (EUR 5.882bn) at the end of March, the finance ministry confirmed in a detailed release of data on Monday.

The central budget had a deficit of 2,338.3 billion forints, the social security funds were 61.7 billion forints in the red, and separate state funds were 78.6 billion forints in the black.

The ministry said interest expenditures, which included large payments on retail government securities, reached 1,241.3 billion forints in January-March, up 604.0 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Spending on pensions reached 1,895.7 billion forints, while healthcare expenditures came to 588.9 billion forints.

The ministry said that spending on maintaining the regulated utility price system for households reached 461.3 billion forints.

It underlined the government’s commitment to reducing the budget deficit and the public debt, noting that the deficit will be cut to below 3 percent of GDP over the coming years.

The ministry said the government targets a budget deficit of 4.5 percent in 2024, 3.7 percent in 2025 and 2.9 percent in 2026.

As we wrote yesterday, Hungary has almost no chance of reaching Romania’s economic development level. Details are HERE.

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