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The March figure is significantly above the ministry's earlier forecast of a HUF 262.5 bln deficit for the month, but in line with information leaked to the press earlier April.
The finance ministry broke with tradition this month, publishing preliminary figures on the 10th of the month instead of the usual 5–7th, claiming that it didn't want to "influence the outcome of the elections."
Despite the huge budget gap in March, the ministry continues to wax optimistic, blaming the figures on "temporary" and "one-off" factors, and declaring that it still sees the year-end target as attainable despite having produces half the expected annual deficit in just three months.
"The reason for the higher-than-forecast deficit was not excessive spending by budget institutions. The implementation and payment of EU programs has sped up ... [but] this will boost the deficit only temporarily and within the year," the ministry said in a statement.
Ministry officials noted earlier that due to the uneven development of the budget throughout the year, most of the revenues are expected to be realized in the third and fourth quarters of the year, while the bulk of expenditures take place in Q1 and Q2.
Among one-off spending items listed by the ministry for Q1 were the payment of a bonus monthly wage to civil servants, subsidies for agricultural producers, and the first half of this year's bonus pension payment. The latter alone totaled HUF 80 bln, ministry officials said earlier.
The number of personal income tax reclamations also exceeded the ministry's forecasts, while VAT revenues were also lower due to the cut in the VAT rate this year by 5 percentage points, from 25% to 20%.
