Hungary had a cashflow-based general government deficit, excluding local councils, of HUF 75.4bn or 7.7pc of the HUF 984.6bn full year target in January, the National Economy Ministry said in a first reading. In January last year, the shortfall was HUF 2.5bn or 0.3pc of the HUF 841.8bn original full-year target. Last year as a whole, the deficit came in at HUF 929.2bn or 82.6pc of the full-year target amended several times to HUF 1,125.2bn. Official expectation is that the accrual-based deficit, calculated with the European System of Accounts (ESA), could have been at most 2.7pc of GDP, in line with the target, or as low as 2.3pc, last year. Within the general government, the central budget had a HUF 166.6bn deficit last month, or 17.3pc of the HUF 961.2bn full-year target according to Econews calculations. The social insurance funds had a surplus of HUF 54.6bn in January against a target of breaking even over the year. Separate state funds registered a surplus of HUF 36.6bn against a full year target of HUF 23.4bn deficit.