Hungary’s parliament could pass the 2010 budget as early as November, a few weeks earlier than usual, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said on Hungarian public television on Thursday.
Bajnai said it was a top priority to have the budget ready as soon as possible and the government would seek to speed up the budgeting process. He added that the government was not making “an election budget.”
The prime minister noted that the government had taken the “most painful” measures, but said that budgeting would “still not be a picnic.” A number of further austerity measures will be needed, which will impact such areas as local and national public administration or public transportation, Bajnai said.
The budget for next year could serve as a solid foundation for favourable changes that will help the country out of the crisis, Bajnai said.
Concerning the possibility of early elections, the prime minister said that as long as his government was able to manage the crisis, it was better than a “lame duck of just campaigning, making promises and doing nothing else.”