The central sub sector of the state budget closed the month of October with a surplus of HUF 138.4bn. This has been the consequence on one hand of the transfer of hitherto suspended EU funding totalling several hundreds of billions of forints and – on the other hand – of higher-than-expected tax revenues. Thus, the accumulated shortfall of the central sub sector of the state budget decreased to HUF 816.2bn.

In the month of October, the state budget received some HUF 233bn of -- mostly overdue -- EU funding. Following a five-month long dispute, the European Commission had ended the suspension of payments related to certain operative programmes already in September, thus funds lawfully earmarked for Hungary can already appear as revenues in the state budget.

The accumulated deficit of the central sub sector of the state budget was HUF 809.6bn one year ago. Overall, until October 2015 the central budget has accumulated a deficit of HUF 893.5bn, while Social Security Funds and Extra Budgetary State Funds posted surpluses of HUF 41.9bn and HUF 35.4bn, respectively.

In comparison to the previous year, tax revenues increased by some HUF 570bn (corporate income tax, VAT, excise taxes, personal income tax, welfare taxes and contributions). This has been the result of the Government’s pro-growth and pro-transparency measures (e.g.: online cash registers, EKÁER). Hungarian reforms are working; predictable and responsible fiscal policy provides a stable framework for the country’s economy.

The ESA deficit target remains 2.4 percent of GDP for 2015 -- a realistic expectation in light of currently avaialable and anticipated revenue and expenditure data.

(Ministry for National Economy)