Ministry confirms EUR 5.1bn deficit at the end of August

Hungary’s cash flow-based budget, excluding local councils, ran a 1,646.2 billion forint (EUR 5.1bn) deficit at the end of August, the Finance Ministry confirmed in a second reading of data released Monday.

The deficit reached 121 percent of the 1,360.7 billion forint full-year target.

The central budget deficit reached 1,708 billion forints while separate state funds had a 21.8 billion forints surplus and social insurance funds a 40 billion forint surplus.

In August alone, the budget deficit came to 155.3 billion forints.

The ministry noted that pre-financing for EU-funded projects reached 1,388.5 billion forints by the end of August, while transfers from Brussels came to just 183 billion. Expenditures were also lifted by spending on fully central budget-funded projects, such as the Modern Cities Programme, the Healthy Budapest Programme, as well as road renovations and support for corporate investments.

A combined 30.7 billion forints of family subsidies for September were paid early, in August, to help out with households’ back-to-school expenses, the ministry added.

Revenue from VAT in January-August was up 169.3 billion forints from the same period a year earlier, while revenue from personal income tax climbed 170.4 billion and revenue from payroll taxes increased 187.6 billion.