“Thanks to disciplined fiscal policy, in 2019 Hungary’s sovereign debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio fell by some 4 percentage points from 70.2 percent to 66.3 percent”, the latest data published today by the Central Statistical Office states. Last year, the budget once again fully provided the resources required for state public duties and the government’s economic and social policy measures.

The Central Statistical Office sends data on the government sector’s two highlighted indices, the government sector deficit and the state of sovereign debt, to the European Union’s statistical office twice-a-year, in the spring and autumn. According to the document, Hungary’s debt index has been falling continuously since 2012, and has decreased by over 14 percentage points over the past decade, putting it tangibly lower than the EU average. In harmony with annual deficit targets, the budget deficit has been regularly under the three percent Maastricht criteria, including last year, when the deficit was 2 percent of GDP. Last year’s budget enabled, amongst others, the continued advance payment of European Union development funding, the channelling of significant resources to the launching of the Family Protection Action Plan, and from among domestic development expenditure to the investment projects of the Modern Cities Program and Modern Village Program, the modernisation of the road and rail networks, improving the competitiveness of enterprises, wage increases in several sectors, and for extra benefits in recognition of pensioners, such as the public utility voucher and end-of-year pension premium.

The resources required to protect against the coronavirus pandemic must be provided continuously and in full, in view of which the restructuring of the budget has already begun under the direction of the Ministry of Finance.

(Ministry of Finance/MTI)