Budget deficit widens to HUF 1,051.5 bn at end-May on pandemic defense spending

Hungary's budget deficit, excluding local councils, reached 1,051.5 billion forints (EUR 3bn) at the end of May, widening on pandemic defense spending, the finance ministry said in a preliminary release on Monday. The ministry noted that the government had taken decisions on 590 billion forints of procurements related to the Covid-19 pandemic by the end of May and 450 billion of that amount had already been paid. The ministry noted that pre-financing for investments funded by the European Union continued to have an impact on the budget balance. Spending on investments came to 967.6 billion forints by the end of May, whereas transfers from Brussels came to just 486.7 billion.