They tried to arrange the matter in a styka – but it didn’t work.
On the evening of December 30, the Ministry of Finance published its latest medium-term forecast. The document must be made public by the end of the year, and it is probably no coincidence that this time was chosen, when less attention is drawn to the topic due to the holidays, points out the privátbankár.hu.
The document paints a rather gloomy picture of the performance of the Hungarian economy in 2023, as well as of the state of public finances.
The most important economic newspapers, hvg.hu and portfolio.hu, have also collected the most important information from the data provided in the document:
– Hungarian GDP fell by 0.4 percent in 2023,
– the public budget deficit as a percentage of GDP was 5.9 percent – this exceeded not only the original plan of 3.9 percent, but also the last autumn estimate of 5.2 percent,
– the annual value of inflation was 17.6 percent,
– Gross wages increased by 14.5 percent.
From the last two figures, it can be calculated that the net real wage per capita fell by 3.3 percent. Also:
– household consumption decreased by 2 percent,
– Imports fell by 4.8 percent, while the value of exports increased by 0.4 percent.
The document also addresses the huge public budget deficit and reveals its causes:
– companies paid HUF 320 billion less tax than planned,
– Revenues from consumption-related taxes (mainly VAT) were HUF 1,137 billion less than planned, and in spite of high inflation, they exceed last year’s figure by only HUF 300 billion (9,050 billion after 8,718),
– household payments also turned out to be 120 billion less than expected,
– 400 billion forints less than planned was received from the European Union.