Speaking at a press conference on fiscal data for 2015, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said last year was a turning point, as the vulnerability of Hungary’s economy has diminished and thanks to rising wages and improving employment situation and consumption the Hungarian economy has been placed on a stable growth path. As a result of favourable trends, the general government budget deficit will be around 2 percent of GDP and the government debt-to-GDP ratio is set to fall below 76 percent for 2015.
We are closing a successful and fruitful year, he said. Good results are not solely the consequence of a few key sectors, but also of continuously rising wages as well as growing employment and consumption. Gross wages increased – instead of the expected 4.8 percent – by 6.2 percent, while the number of people in employment rose by 563 thousand since 2010.
Among the factors that have bolstered fiscal data the Minister mentioned the phasing-out of forex loans, subdued inflation, foreign trade surpluses and steadily low oil prices. The Minister singled out pro-transparency measures among major steps: the introduction of on-line cash registers and the EKÁER has helped add some EUR 550bn more to last year’s tax revenues compared to 2014.
The fact that although hundreds of billions of forints have been disbursed for debt assumptions concerning state companies such as BKV and MTVA or for managing the migration crisis (HUF 84bn) and the shortfall is smaller than previously predicted signals the stability of state finances.
Minister of State for Public Finances Péter Benő Banai said that comprehensive, final data will be published at the end of March, together with the official fiscal report scheduled to be sent to the European Union.
On the other hand, in light of preliminary cash-flow data on revenues and expenditures confirm that the deficit of the central government sub sector may be lower than the projected ESA 2.4 percent of GDP figure. Hungarian reforms have thus proven successful also in fiscal policy.
(Ministry for National Economy)
