There will be no election budget in Hungary next year, János Lázár said in an interview given to the newspaper Világgazdaság, adding: employment, family support and defence expenditures will be at the centre of the 2018 budget.

In the Tuesday issue of the business newspaper, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office stressed the advantages of the fact that the draft of next year’s budget will be submitted to Parliament already on 26 April. While parliamentary elections will be held in 2018, the Government is not preparing for an election budget, and is planning a 72 per cent sovereign debt to GDP rate, he said.

By Mr Lázár’s account, despite this, all ministries will have minimum the same allocations at their disposal as this year. Hungary will be able to implement infrastructure developments from its own resources in 2018-19, and 80 per cent of the budget will be available for operations, while 20 per cent will be allocated for development, he said, adding: economic growth will generate the necessary funds.

According to the Minister’s report, defence expenditures will be comprised of three main components: thanks to the higher number of better-equipped police officers, public security has improved, while it is necessary to take account of the extra expenditures caused by illegal migration. At the same time, they are preparing a major army development plan for the period between 2020 and 2026, one of the elements of which lies in the revival of the Hungarian arms industry.

Mr Lázár highlighted: pay rises do not increase the black economy as there is a shortage of labour as it is. If, however, living conditions further improve, Hungarians will not find it worth their while to seek employment in the West.

He stressed that Hungary is at the top of the rankings in the absorption of EU funds: HUF 4,860 billion has already been awarded, accounting for some 55 to 60 per cent of the entire allocation, and contracts are currently being concluded.

At the same time, according to the Minister, it is the Hungarian Parliament that should determine the rates of taxes, grants and official energy prices. Cheap energy must be made available, and to this end, the maintenance of the capacity of the Paks atomic power station is of the utmost importance, he said.

As he added, the Paks project will create 10 thousand jobs and a 1 per cent GDP growth. At the same time, it will not cause dependence on Russia because fuel is obtainable from any source. However, Paks II will only cover one half of the country’s energy needs, and the other half will come from green electricity, Mr Lázár said.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)