Hungary’s budget deficit – calculated according to the European Union’s accrual-based accounting rules – came to 2.2 percent of GDP last year, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Monday.
Hungary’s government had targeted an ESA 2010 deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP.
In absolute terms, the deficit reached 934 billion forints (EUR 2.9bn).
Hungary’s state debt as a percentage of GDP reached 70.8 percent at the end of last year, down from 73.4 percent at the end of 2017, a second reading of data released by the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) on Monday shows.
The ratio was a hair under the 70.9 percent the central bank reported in the first reading published on February 18.
The 70.8 percent ratio fell from 72.5 percent at the end of Q3, 74.0 percent at the end of Q2 and 73.7 percent at the end of Q1.
Hungary’s constitution requires the year-end debt-to-GDP ratio to fall each year until it reaches 50 percent.
Hungary’s January trade surplus was revised upwards to 392 million euros from 382 million in a second reading of data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) on Monday.
The trade surplus was down 215 million from the same month a year earlier.
On the featured photo: Finance Minister Mihály Varga