Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has left harsher effects than the 2008, the Hungarian Finance Minister Mihály Varga suggested that the country’s GDP could potentially fall by 6.4% in 2020. 

He showed optimism about next year’s second quarter, when the vaccine could be available and impacting the country’s economic trends. Varga was before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Varga continued to assure the public that the ministry is seeking to improve Hungary’s growth momentum and looking at ways that will support the country throughout 2023. 

However, he suggested that the budget deficit in 2020 will be higher than usual, amounting to 8-9% of the GDP. 

The International Monetary Fund also contracted its estimate for Hungary’s economy by 6.1%, having initially predicted a 3.1% contraction for 2020. 

Initially, 942 billion forints were transferred to the economic defence fund and was later pushed up to 2,059 billion forints.

In other news, the Polish Finance Minister Tadeusz Koscinski spoke up to say that he does not expect more amendments to this year’s budget. This means that the expected budget deficit for the year will remain 109 billion zlotys.