"Hungary expects to post a budget surplus in December but the full-year deficit will be only marginally lower than an earlier forecast as some budget reserves have been used up, the finance ministry said.State secretary Laszlo Keller told a news conference on Thursday that the ministry used up a total of 78.5 billion Hungarian forints ($424.6 million) worth of reserves, set aside in the budget to avoid potential overspending.
"As we saw that the budget is on track ... some reserves have been freed up," Keller said.
Hungary's budget is expected to post a surplus of 60.9 billion forints ($329.4 million) in December.
The ministry now projects a cash-flow based deficit of 914.7 billion forints for the full year, excluding local governments, down slightly from an earlier projection for 921.5 billion.
Keller said the ministry left its European Union accounting based deficit forecast unchanged at 3.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for this year.
"According to our present knowledge, we calculate with an accruals-based (EU) deficit of 3.4 percent for this year," he said.
Next year the government plans to cut the deficit to 2.6 percent of GDP in line with its obligations towards the International Monetary Fund and the EU which granted a $25.1 billion rescue package to Hungary in October.
The package helped Hungary prevent financial crisis and restored some confidence in the country's financial markets."
Source: HVG
29.12.2008