The draft budget adopted by the government will be presented to the Fiscal Council at the end of April and, in the light of the Council's opinion, the government plans to submit it to Parliament in early May.
Parliament may adopt Hungary's 2026 budget law and tax rules in June.
The Economy Ministry plans to finance government measures while maintaining financial stability and fiscal discipline. The ministry considers it advisable that next year's budget position - the primary balance - excluding interest on public debt should be in balance, i.e. zero.
This means that the budget remains neutral with respect to economic growth, i.e. neither stimulative nor regressive. Accordingly, the deficit target for 2026 is proposed to be 3.5% of GDP. The government deficit and debt could thus continue to decline in 2026 after 2025, the ministry said in a statement.
The 3.5% deficit target is a new element, as the government announced in the 2025 budget chapter that the budget deficit would be reduced from 3.7% to 2.9%, with public spending falling.
The current deficit target could be seen as a carry-over from the tax cuts announced over the weekend, although the government said at the time that the necessary funds would be generated by economic growth. However, it appears that the real cover will be debt growth instead..
Moreover, the trajectory of the deficit is still not in line with analysts' expectations, with this year's and next year's deficit projections still closer to 5%.
