Shocking! Hungary’s government sector had a 10.15 mn EUR deficit in 2021

Hungary’s government sector had a 3,736 billion forint deficit in 2021, equivalent to 6.8 percent of GDP, calculating with the European Union’s accrual-based accounting methodology, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a preliminary release on Friday.

The deficit relative to GDP was a full percentage point under the gap in 2020. The National Bank of Hungary said the public debt amounted to 42,414 billion forints at the end of 2021, or 76.8 percent of GDP. Government revenue came to 22,695 billion forints while spending totalled 26,431 billion last year, with revenues increasing by 1,739 billion, or 8.3 percent, and expenditure up 1,715 billion, or 6.9 percent, compared with the previous year.

Both the budget deficit in 2021 and the public debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of the year were appreciably lower than expected, Dániel Molnár, an analyst at the Századvég research institute, told MTI. In Hungary’s Convergence Programme submitted last April, the government forecast an ESA deficit of 7.5 percent and a public debt ratio of 79.9 percent, he noted.

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