Despite the Deficit, the Government Aims to Reduce the National Debt

The war, the energy sanctions crisis and the dangerous global economic environment have all put the Hungarian budget under considerable pressure. Despite the exceptional expenditure, the government continues to reduce the deficit and public debt year on year, the Finance Ministry (PM) stressed in a press release.

By the end of November, the central subsystem of the general government closed with a deficit of HUF 4074.3 billion (EUR 10.7 billion). This included a deficit of HUF 3 824.9 billion in the central budget, a surplus of HUF 171.9 billion in the state funds, and a deficit of HUF 421.3 billion in the social security funds.
In addition to exceptional expenditure, the budget continues to pre-fund the costs of EU programs. By the end of November,

EU expenditure amounted to HUF 2 402.0 billion, of which only HUF 1 265.4 billion in EU revenue was received.

To preserve the value of pensions, the government implemented a further 3.5 percentage point pension increase in November. The annual budgetary impact of the increase was HUF 188.2 billion. Together with this, 5 313.4 billion forints (EUR 13.9 billion) had been spent on pensions by the end of November.
In the health sector, the government spent HUF 2189.1 billion on preventive health care in the first eleven months. Compared to the same period last year, tax and contribution receipts were 15.9% higher. This means that the revenues of the central subsystem were 18.0 percent higher than at the end of November last year, the PM said.

The statement does not include details on how how the government aims to finance the reduction of our national debt that currently stands at 70%. Although this number is significantly lower than the EU average (83%), the national debt significantly affects Hungary’s international credit rating.

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