The government expects its revenue to decline by at least HUF 300bn (EUR 1.2bn) in 2010 as compared to 2009, Finance Minister Peter Oszko said on a television program on Wednesday morning.
The finance minister noted that the government must therefore reduce budgetary expenditures by HUF 300bn next year in order to meet the government’s 2010 deficit target of 3.8pc.
Mr Oszko said that the finance ministry expects the social-security fund deficit to climb above HUF 200bn by September, though to drop to around HUF 155bn by the end of 2009 as a result of austerity measures. The finance minister added that the social-security fund must be reduced to the latter sum by the end of the year in order to meet government’s 2009 deficit target of 3.9pc.
The finance minister noted that delegations would arrive to Hungary from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission at the end of August or the beginning of September to review compliance with the stipulations attached to a EUR 20bn IMF-EU-World Bank stand-by loan granted to the country last November.