No election year budget, PM claims

Next year budget will not be an election year budget, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány promised yesterday. General government deficit will shrink to 2.9 per cent of the GDP in 2006 with the correction for pension system reform authorised by the EU recently. Without this correction, deficit would be equal to 4.1 per cent. GDP will grow by a

healthy 4 per cent and inflation a moderate 2 per cent next year, according to the budget forecast. The government wants to cut taxes, reform the family support system and increase the funds available for the agriculture sector next year.