Hungary’s cash flow-based budget, excluding local councils, was 1,144.1 billion forints (EUR 3.2bn) at the end of March, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary release of data.
The deficit grew from 539.7 billion forints at the end of February. The central budget had a 943.0 billion forint deficit and the social insurance funds were 182.7 billion in the red, while separate state funds had a 18.4 billion forint deficit at the end of the quarter. The ministry said revenues were impacted by the fallout of the pandemic, as well as reduced labour costs introduced as a job protection measure, such as the reduction of social contribution tax to 15.5% from 17.5%, as well as higher wages, the ministry said. The ministry noted that payouts for European Union funded projects came close to 616 billion forints in January-March, while transfers from Brussels reached just 150.6 billion. Pandemic spending came to 342.8 billion, the ministry said. Family allowances, disbursed early due to the Easter holidays, came to 32.1 billion forints, the ministry said.
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