Hungary’s cash flow-based budget, excluding local councils, ran a 141.9 billion forint (EUR 442.3m) deficit at the end of March, the finance ministry confirmed in a second reading of data released on Wednesday.
The three-month deficit reached 14.2 percent of the 998.4 billion forint full-year target. The ministry said that the full-year accrual-based deficit target of 1.8 percent of GDP was achievable, parallel with a reduction in public debt.
In March alone, the budget ran a deficit of 209.3 billion forints after a sizeable surplus in January and a smaller deficit in February.
The central budget ran a 139.6 billion forint deficit at the end of March, the social insurance funds were 3.7 billion forints in the red, but the separate state funds had a surplus of 1.4 billion forints, the ministry confirmed.
January-March revenues of the budget excluding local councils rose by an annual 14.8 percent to 4,958.5 billion forints with rising tax revenues and revenues from the European Union jumping compared to 2018. Revenue from state assets more than doubled with revenue arriving from frequency sales.
Last year Hungary’s budget deficit– calculated according to the European Union’s accrual-based accounting rules – came to 2.2 percent of GDP.
In the photo Mihály Varga. Photo by Noémi Bruzák/MTI