The goal of the economy protection action plan launched to reduce the economic effects of the coronavirus epidemic is to protect the results achieves thus far, Hungarian families, pensioners, workplaces and enterprises. In the interests of this, the government is assisting enterprises with, amongst others, job protection and job creation wage subsidies, tax concessions and funding for investment projects.

By the end of May, decisions were made concerning the procurement of 590 billion forints (EUR 1.7 billion) worth of epidemiological equipment, of which expenditure on protection exceeded 450 billion forints (EUR 1.3 billion) by the end of May.

At the end of May 2020, the central subsystem of public finances posted a deficit of 1051.5 billion forints (EUR 3.03 billion), of which the central budget closed the period with a deficit of 910 billion forints (EUR 2.624 billion), separate state funds achieved a surplus of 12.8 billion forints (EUR 36.9 million), and social security funds generated a deficit of 154.3 billion forints (EUR 444.9 million). During the similar period in the previous year, the deficit of the central subsystem was 176.4 billion forints (EUR 508.6 million). In May 2020, the central subsystem realised a deficit of 324.1 billion forints (EUR 924.5 million), while the deficit for the same month in 2019 was 137.4 billion forints (EUR 396.1 million).

Payments for the procurement of healthcare equipment relating to the coronavirus epidemic, (including, for instance, face masks, other PPE equipment and respirators) totalled 450 billion forints (EUR 1.297 billion) by the end of May. A total of 486.7 billion forints (EUR 1.403 billion) in European Union revenue arrived in the treasury by the end of May 2020, while EU expenditure for the first five months of 2020 exceeded 967.6 billion forints (EUR 2.79 billion). In addition, amongst other domestic expenditure realised until the end of May 2020, the resources spent on maintaining and operating the  public road system (55.8 billion forints – EUR 160.9 million), out of the Village Road Fund (53.0 billion forints – EUR 152.8 million) and with relation to the Modern Cities Program (29.1 billion forints  - EUR 83.9 million) may be highlighted. Significant resources were also spent on refurbishing the road network (26.3 billon forints – EUR 75.8 million) and from the funds earmarked for investment promotion purposes (24.4 billion forints – EUR 70.4 million), in addition to which a major sum was also spent on the car purchasing subsidy for large families (22.6 billion forints – EUR 65.2 million).

As it has done to date during the state of emergency and preparations to combat the epidemic, the government is continuing to provide all necessary funding for protection, while maintaining this year’s target deficit to GDP ratio at 3.8%.

(Ministry of Finance/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)