Hungarian Budget Closes September with a Surplus

The protracted war between Russia and Ukraine and the sanctions policy in Brussels have led to an unfavorable global economic environment and an energy crisis. Even with extraordinary spending, the budget guarantees the preservation of the value of pensions, family allowances, and public utility bills. The government is committed to further reducing the deficit and public debt year on year. The budget closed September with a surplus of 33.7 billion forints (EUR 868 million), the Ministry of Finance revealed in a factsheet on Monday.

By the end of September, the central sub-system of the state budget closed with a deficit of HUF 3,265 billion (Eur 84,1 million). Within this, the central budget showed a deficit of HUF 3.26 billion (EUR 8.4 million), the state funds showed a surplus of HUF 136.7 billion (EUR 3.5 million), and the social security funds showed a deficit of HUF 135.7 billion (EUR 3.4 million).

In the first nine months of the year, the cost of the public utility bill amounted to HUF 1,105 billion (EUR 28.5 million), including compensation for district heating companies, universal service of electricity and natural gas to households and stockholding.

Compensation for national and suburban public transport services totaled HUF 501.7 billion (EUR 12.9 million) by the end of September. This represents an increase of HUF 98.1 billion (EUR 2.5 million) compared to the first nine months of 2022.

In addition to exceptional expenditure, the budget continues to pre-fund the costs of the EU program. By the end of September, EU spending amounted to HUF 1992 billion (EUR 5.1 million), but only HUF 1159.9 billion (EUR 29.9 million) of this was in EU revenue. Payments for pensions and preventive healthcare also exceeded the payments made a year earlier. 4,291.3 billion (EUR 110,6 million) for pensions and 1,712 billion (EUR 44.1 million) for preventive health care had been spent by the end of September.

Via: MTI; Featured photo: Pixabay