By the end of March, the central public finance subsystem closed with a deficit of 2,321.4 billion HUF, the Finance Ministry published a quick report on Tuesday.
This is a surprisingly high deficit, exceeding, for example, the deficit in the first quarter of last year, which amounted to 2,089.66 billion Hungarian forints. But what is even more important is that in just three months, the original deficit target planned for the entire year has been met almost entirely. According to the budget law, the general budget deficit this year would have reached HUF 2,514.79 billion, of which we have already reached 92.3 percent in April. – writes A 444. is
Ministry of Finance, photo: Wikipedia.
It is true that since then it has already been decided to significantly raise the target deficit level. They now expect a deficit of about $4,000 billion – and at the same time, we are already approaching 60 percent of that deficit in a single quarter.
According to the Prime Minister's report, the general budget deficit combined so that the central budget achieved a deficit of 2,338.3 billion forints, separate state funds achieved a surplus of 78.6 billion forints, and social security financial funds reached a surplus of 78.6 billion forints. A deficit of 61.7 billion forints.
The Ministry notes: Since some series of Hungarian government premium bonds (PMÁP) are due to pay their interest in the first quarter, the interest expense paid to the public showed a significant increase in March as well. By the end of March, interest expense payments amounted to HUF 1,241.3 billion. This is 604 billion Hungarian forints higher than the performance of the same period of the previous year, almost double.
The amounts spent on retirement benefits and preventive therapeutic care also exceeded the amounts paid in the previous year. The state spent HUF 1,895.7 billion on respite care and HUF 588.9 billion on curative and preventive care as of the end of March. The first represents an increase of 10.8% and the second of 5.6% compared to the first quarter of last year.
Expenditures related to public protection and support for utility services amounted to 461.3 billion Hungarian forints by the end of March. The detailed data series will be announced on April 22.
Title of the Ministry's rapid report: The government is reducing the budget deficit and national debt. Then they repeat that in the text: “The government is committed to reducing the deficit and debt.” According to their current promise, the deficit will reach 4.5 percent of GDP this year, 3.7 percent next year, and 2.9 percent in 2026. The deficit target for this year was originally 2.9 percent.
