They will grow to about €3.5 billionBUDAPEST, May 25.
/tass/. Hungary will increase defense spending in 2024 to about €3.5 billion, which will exceed 2% of the country's GDP. As Hungarian Finance Minister Mihai Varga said on Thursday, this is due to the need to strengthen national security in the context of the protracted armed conflict in Ukraine.
"It is planned to spend 1,300 billion forints [about €3.5 billion] from the national defense fund next year," the Finance Minister said at a meeting with journalists dedicated to the preparation of the draft budget for 2024. He explained that the conflict on the territory of neighboring Ukraine "probably will not end in the near future and will continue next year." In addition, the minister added, funds are needed to protect borders from illegal migration.
"Therefore, even in such an uncertain period, we need a budget that guarantees the physical and economic security of the country," Varga said. The government expects that economic growth in Hungary will be 4% in 2024, and inflation will decrease to 6%.
Earlier, Hungarian Defense Minister Krysztof Szalai-Bobrownicki made similar assessments about the duration of the armed conflict in Ukraine.