Hungary’s budget deficit should not exceed 3.8 percent of GDP next year; this is what both the International Monetary Fund and the markets expect from the country, Finance Minister Peter Oszko told public television on Wednesday morning.
To this effect, the government should take some reasonable steps, including cuts in central subsidies to the Hungarian State Railways and the local councils, the minister said.
Concerning the IMF’s Tuesday report which said that the vulnerable political situation posed a risk to the country’s programme linked to its stand-by loan agreement with the IMF, Oszko said, “it is not because of this government that the Monetary Fund sees risks”. The minister added that the report was compiled after an IMF delegation’s visit to Hungary in May, well before parliament adopted a crucial package of 2010 tax changes on Monday.