Budget maintains HUF 67.3 bn surplus by end of February

Hungary's cash-flow-based budget, excluding local councils, ran a 67.3 billion forint (EUR 213m) surplus at the end of February, the finance ministry said in a second reading of data on Thursday. The deficit target for the full year is 998.4 billion forints. In February alone, the budget deficit came to around 177.2 billion forints but January had a surplus of 244.5 billion forints. Main expenditure items in February included spending on measures to promote social goals and development programmes, the ministry said.