Budget surplus produced by higher tax revenue

In the month of July 2017 the state budget posted a surplus of HUF 94.4bn, thanks mainly to higher-than-expected tax revenues, according to a statement about fiscal data by the Hungarian Ministry of National Economy.

The statement says the central sub sector of the state budget accumulated a deficit of HUF 816.8bn by the end of July 2017. Within that, the central budget and Social Security Funds had a deficit of HUF 843.7bn and HUF 81.8bn, respectively, while Extra-Budgetary State Funds posted a surplus of HUF 108.7bn. In the initial seven months of 2016, the deficit of the central sub sector totalled HUF 464.8bn, while there was a deficit of HUF 62.7bn in July 2016.

According to the Ministry, several factors caused the difference in the end-of-July balances of this year and last. On the revenue side, in 2017 VAT and personal income tax revenues were higher, as well as pension fund, health insurance and labour market contributions plus revenues from agricultural land sales. On the expenditure side, payments related to EU-funded projects were as much as HUF 1090bn, whereas last year HUF 601.7bn was paid for beneficiaries.  Hungary has optimized the system for the disbursement and clearing of EU funding in order to help end-users. Accordingly, aiming to help the timely launch and completion of EU-funded projects, the state budget disburses an advance payment for beneficiaries.