The government has diverted resources so that the 2021 budget could be focused on combatting the novel coronavirus epidemic and protecting the economy, Finance Minister Mihály Varga told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió.
The government’s established practice of preparing and submitting the budget bill to parliament in the spring provides a degree of predictability to market players, households and families that needed to be maintained even during the epidemic, Varga said. Job creation remains one of the top priorities, Varga said, underlining the importance of a stable fiscal policy, supporting families, protecting pensioners and guaranteeing the real value of pensions.
The budget allocates 3,000 billion forints (EUR 8.7bn) to a health-insurance and epidemic response fund and 2,550 billion forints towards economy protection. It also allocates a total of 270 billion forints for contingency measures, he added. The bill earmarks an extra 156 billion forints for health care and an additional 78 billion for education compared with this year, the minister said. Border protection also remains an important aspect, with 704 billion forints earmarked for defence and an extra 154 billion forints allocated for the police forces and public safety spending, he said.
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