Despite horror inflation, budget deficit skyrockets in Hungary

Hungary’s cash-flow-based budget shortfall at the end of March was 2,089.7 billion forints (EUR 5.6bn), the Finance Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

The central budget deficit was 2,019 billion forints, while social security funds were 89.6 billion in the red. Separate state funds posted a surplus of 18.9 billion. The deficit in the month of March came to 564.6 billion, well below the 875.7 billion forint shortfall in the same month a year earlier. The government targets a deficit of 3,400.2 billion forints for the full year.

In 2022, the budget was 4,753.4 billion forints in the red. The ministry noted the war and energy crisis as having “changed the economic environment radically”, adding that families, jobs and pensions would enjoy government protections nonetheless. The ministry confirmed the full-year accrual-based deficit target of 3.9 percent of GDP and a public debt below 70 percent of GDP.

The budget deficit reached 61 percent of the annual planned deficit in just three month, telex.hu wrote.

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