Hungary’s cash flow-based budget, excluding local councils, ran a 303.6 billion forint deficit at the end of September, 30.4% of the full-year target, the finance ministry confirmed in a second reading of the data. The ministry noted that 464.4 billion forints of EU transfers had arrived in September, giving the general government a monthly surplus of 207.2 billion.

In spite of the September windfall, EU transfers for January-September, at 931.7 billion, were still short of the 1,077.4 billion of central budget payouts for EU-funded projects as the government continued to pre-finance such investments. The ministry said revenue from VAT stood at 77.5% of the full-year target at the end of September. Revenue from personal income tax and from payroll tax was 75.2% and 73.5% of the respective full-year targets, it added. Budget expenditures on road and rail construction projects, on projects undertaken in the framework of the Modern Cities Programme and the Hungarian Village Programme, and on investment incentives, remained significant, the ministry said. The full-year deficit target of 1.8% of GDP, calculated according to the EU’s accrual-based accounting rules, “remains achievable”, it added.