The central budget ran a 585.8 billion forint deficit, while social insurance funds and separate state funds had surpluses of 52.5 billion forints and 68.5 billion forints, respectively. In the first seven months of 2015, the deficit was 894.1 billion forints.

The ministry attributed the difference between the January-July figures of the two years to beneficial effects from the real economy, higher tax income from the whitening of the economy and different spending allocations of the central budget.

The ministry noted that the July 2016 deficit was amongst the lowest over the last fifteen years.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.