The budget, as it did during the state of emergency and continues to do during the period of epidemiological preparedness, is fully providing the resources required for protecting against the coronavirus pandemic and the rebooting of the economy.

As a result of the epidemiological expenses, the economy protection measures and the pre-financing of European Union development projects, the central system of public finances ended the first six months of the year with a deficit of 1837 billion forints (EUR 5.193 billion).

This year’s economic and budgetary processes have by now been totally overwritten by the effect that the coronavirus pandemic has had on every part of society and the economy. The central system of public finances closed the first six months of the year with a deficit of 1837 billion forints (EUR 5.193 billion). Within this, the central budget posted a deficit of 1534.3 billion forints (EUR 4.337 billion), separate state funds produced a surplus of 11.2 billion forints (EUR 31.6 million), and social security funds produced a deficit of 313.9 billion forints (EUR 887.4 million). The deficit of the central subsystem was 390 billion forints (EUR 1.103 billion) during the same period last year. In June 2020, the central subsystem ended the month with a deficit of 785.5 billion forints (EUR 2.22 billion), compared to a deficit of 213.6 billion forints (EUR 613.8 million) in June 2019.

The total cost of purchasing healthcare equipment relating to the coronavirus epidemic (e.g. the procurement of face masks and other PPE equipment, and respirators) exceeded 520 billion forints (EUR 1.47 billion) for the period between 1 January and 30 June. A total of 489.5 billion forints (EUR 1.384 billion) in European Union development funding arrived in Hungary during the first two quarters of the year, while EU expenditure for the first six months of 2020 exceeded 1085.1 billion forints (EUR 3.07 billion). No EU funding has been paid into the Anti-Epidemic Funding from the European Union Fund established within the budget to date; the government is covering the total cost of protecting against the epidemic exclusively from the domestic budget. In addition, resources paid out for the maintaining and functioning of the public road system (61.6 billion forints ), from the Village Road Fund (57.0 billion forints) and for priority public road projects (55.0 billion forints) may also be highlighted from among domestic expenditure during the period ending on 30 June. The sums paid out within the framework of the competitiveness-increasing funding program made necessary because of the coronavirus epidemic (40.8 billion forints), the refurbishing of the public road network (37.4 billion forints), from the Investment Promotion budget (34.0 billion forints) and within the framework of the Modern Cities Program (29.1 billion forints), as well as the significant sum spent on the car purchasing subsidy for large families (24.6 billion forints), must also be mentioned. In addition, the payment of extraordinary one-time bonuses for healthcare workers and people employed within the healthcare system has also begun.

(Ministry of Finance/MTI)