Hungary’s cash flow-based budget deficit, excluding local councils, reached 1,043.6 billion forints at the end of April, narrowing from the previous month on a 100.5 billion April surplus, the Finance Ministry confirmed in a detailed reading of data released on Friday. Spending on pandemic-related measures exceeded 398.8 billion forints by end-April, the ministry said.
Hungary’s cash flow-based budget deficit, excluding local councils, reached 1,043.6 billion forints at the end of April, narrowing from the previous month on a 100.5 billion April surplus, the Finance Ministry confirmed in a detailed reading of data released on Friday.
Hungary’s use of Chinese and Russian Covid jabs in its vaccination rollout have saved the country more than 500 billion forints (EUR 1.43bn) as pandemic restrictions could be eased earlier, state secretary Tamás Menczer said at a conference in Zalaegerszeg, in western Hungary.
Hungary urges the European Union to sign as many free trade agreements as it can over the coming period, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said during a break in a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
In the parliamentary debate on the proposal, Erik Bánki of ruling Fidesz said the budget aimed to help all Hungarians benefit from the country’s progress.
At the debate of the draft budget, the Fiscal Council (KT) called for stronger and swifter measures to reduce the budget deficit and public debt ratios so that fiscal balance is restored more rapidly.
The 2022 budget is devoted to relaunching Hungary’s economy, Mihály Varga, the finance minister, said during a presentation of the draft budget to lawmakers.
Hungarian economic output contracted by an annual 2.3% in the first quarter, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) has said. The scale of the contraction was the smallest since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
The majority of businesses are viable, and the end of the current loan repayment moratorium is not expected to cause a wave of bankruptcies, economic research institute Századvég said citing a recent survey.
County and municipal county leaders in Fejér County are proposing the establishment of a special economic zone in the settlements of Iváncsa, Rácalmás, Adony and Kulcs, south of the capital.
