The government will submit its 2019 budget to Parliament on June 13th, it has been announced.
Gergely Gulyás, the minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, said Parliament may adopt the 2019 budget plans as early as the second half of July.
The minister said that tax reductions will continue, the social contribution tax will decrease by two percent in accordance with an earlier agreement, and the rate of the family tax benefit available to families with two children will also increase.
Gulyás added that the goal of next year’s budget is to keep the deficit below two percent and to increase growth above four percent.
The minister said another goal is to reach full employment and “zero percent on the operating side of the budget,” meaning that with the removal of development funds from the budget there would be no deficit.
Listing the latest economic figures, Gulyás said that the economic policy that Hungary has pursued since 2010 has been successful.
He said that by 2018 the number of active-age workers had increased by 67,000 to 4.4 million, and the primary labor market has been responsible for this increase in its entirety.
He added the reason why the number of public works scheme participants decreased by 42,000 in January to March 2018 compared with the corresponding period of 2017 is that many of them have found jobs on the market.
Regarding average earnings, the minister said that in March 2018 the pre-tax average earnings of full-time workers amounted to 331,500 HUF. This represents an 11.3 percent increase in one year, he explained. He added that with family tax benefits included, the net average earning amounted to 229,000 HUF.