In January, the budget closed with a surplus of 54.4 billion Hungarian forints, with resources available to increase pensions by 6 percent, protect utilities and family allowances. The government aims to boost growth this year, while continuing to reduce the deficit and public debt.
In January 2024, the central public finance subsystem closed with a surplus of 54.4 billion Hungarian forints. Within this, the central budget showed a deficit of HUF 37.4 billion, separate state funds showed a surplus of HUF 41.6 billion, and social insurance financial funds showed a surplus of HUF 50.2 billion – the Ministry of Finance announced in a statement. .
Regarding public protection, universal service reimbursements for residential electricity and natural gas were paid at the usual rate in January.
By the end of January 2024, expenditures to support public utility services amounted to 181.3 billion forints, which was 8.3 billion forints more than the 173.0 billion forints paid for the same purpose in the same period of the previous year.
In 2023, Hungary fully met the European Commission's conditions for judicial reform. As a result, EU revenues in January 2024 (226.0 billion HUF) were more than 191 billion HUF higher than in January 2023 (34.6 billion HUF).
Thus, the amounts spent on retirement benefits and preventive therapeutic care also exceeded the amounts paid in the previous year. We spent HUF 475.6 billion on respite care and HUF 196.9 billion on curative and preventive care as of the end of January.
