Hungary's consolidated state budget deficit was HUF 936.4 billion at the end of July, some HUF 23 billion lower than the expected HUF 959.3 billion, the finance ministry said.
The July surplus exceeded the ministry's own HUF 28.8 billion forecast. Still, the year-to-date deficit figure for the first seven months amounts to a substantial 91.6% of the annual HUF 1,022.6 billion deficit target.
In July, the central budget surplus exceeded the finance ministry's forecast by more than HUF 26 billion. At the same time, both the independent state funds and the social security funds performed slightly worse than the forecast, by a respective HUF 1.1 billion and HUF 2.4 billion.
In the first seven months of the year, the consolidated budget deficit amounted to 4.2% of GDP, as opposed to the finance ministry's 4.3% forecast.
