“Hungary’s budget bill for next year will continue to provide a calculable environment for the participants of the Hungarian economy, and calculates with a target deficit of one percent, a one percent reserve a four percent growth”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga emphasised at a meeting of European Union finance ministers (the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, Ecofin) in Luxembourg.
As he explained, the European Commission is projecting 3.7% growth for Hungary in 2019, but the performance of the Hungarian economy regularly exceeds expectations.
“The growth of the Hungarian economy is in harmony with its growth capacity and recent years have brought permanent economic recovery that is above the EU average, and accordingly, the most important goal of the Hungarian Government is to protect the results achieved so far despite the slowdown in the global economy and the eurozone”, Mr. Varga explained. In addition to achieving a low budget deficit, the reduction in the debt rate (which could fall below 60 percent of the gross domestic product by 2022), will also continue in a stable manner, and with a higher rate of economic growth than that forecast by the Commission this mid-term budget goal could be achieved as early as 2020,
The Ecofin council reviewed horizontal issues relating to the Commission’s country-specific recommendations, with relation to which the Hungarian Finance Minister stressed that the number of fields examined within the European Semester has increased in recent years, while topics that do not belong to the field of economic governance have also come to the forefront, including issues relating to the justice system, for instance.
The finance ministers discussed the European Commission’s long-term climate protection strategy, assessing its economic and financial effects. According to the draft of the document, the European Union must spend 2.8 percent of its GDP, the equivalent of 520-575 billion euros, on the development of energy systems and related infrastructure in the period 2031-2050. Development projects that realise change could bring growth and create new jobs within several fields, but the transition could generate a slowdown in several sectors, and accordingly solutions must be developed that take into account the differences between the capabilities of individual member states and which do not cause a competitive disadvantage for the European economy, the Hungarian Finance Minister explained.