“According to Hungary’s position, over-bureaucratic solutions must be avoided during EU crisis management, and the situation instead requires rapid and flexible solutions”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga declared at a session of the European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN).
“We regard Churches, which are playing a significant role in the intellectual and spiritual renewal of our homeland, as natural allies. This is why we are assisting Churches to be able to perform their public duties and community-building services under the best possible conditions”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga emphasised at the official inauguration of Nyíregyháza-Örökösföld church. The new church was constructed with the help of 450 million forints (EUR 1.25 million) in state funding.
Hungary has protected itself successfully against the epidemic, including in European Union comparison, and the slowdown of the Hungarian economy has developed more favourably than the European Union average. However, protecting against the epidemic and the government’s economy protection measures continue to require major resources from the budget. As a result, the deficit of the central subsystem of public finances totalled 2261 billion forints (EUR 6.29 billion) at the end of August.
In the European Union we need a transparent mechanism for the sharing of burdens and resources in proportion to each Member State’s state of advancement, the joint declaration issued by the finance ministers of the countries of the Visegrád Cooperation (V4) after a meeting held in Warsaw reads.
In the past ten years, Hungary has regained its financial sovereignty which required the elimination of the black economy and the extra state revenues in the magnitude of tens and hundreds of billions of forints arising therefrom, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance told the newspaper ‘Magyar Nemzet’.
This year, the deficit of the budget to GDP could be somewhere between 7 and 9 per cent, Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance Péter Benő Banai said on Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Good morning, Hungary’ on Tuesday. He added that consolidation, however, could start as early as next year.
Although economic recovery has already begun, the rebooting of the economy following the state of emergency continues to require major resources from the budget. The government’s intent is to provide all possible assistance to Hungarian enterprises, and to create at least as many jobs as are eliminated by the epidemic.
The economic recovery has already begun, as also indicated by the application of the tax concessions relating to sectors that have been most adversely affected by the epidemic.
“Hungary is not only amongst the world’s frontrunners based on the results it has achieved within the field of epidemiological protection, but it is also performing outstandingly to combat the damaging economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to bank debtors, the economy protection measures the government has introduced during the coronavirus crisis have helped some one million employees, hundreds of thousands of enterprises and over ten thousand university students”, the Ministry of Finance’s Parliamentary State Secretary, András Tállai informed Hungarian news agency MTI.
“A tender with a budget of 7.3 billion forints (EUR 21.15 million) has been published to facilitate the development of the Hungarian green economy. Applications may be submitted from 31 August 2020”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI.