Hungary's 2020 budget deficit soars on December spending spree

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's preliminary December budget deficit surged to a record 2.25 trillion forints ($7.59 billion) due to sharply increased spending before the end of the year, boosting the 2020 deficit to 5.549 trillion forints, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

In 2019 the full-year budget deficit came in at about 985 billion forints.

Last year Hungary spent some 614.7 billion forints on medical equipment alone related to the coronavirus pandemic. Expenses related to EU-funded projects were at over 2.025 trillion forints. Funds from the EU totalled just over 1.684 trillion forints.

The Finance Ministry said Hungary's 2020 budget deficit could come at around 9% of GDP.

($1 = 296.4 forints)

(Reporting by Krisztina Than)