Vol. I · The 2026 Budget Audit
Hungary's 2026 budget — line by line, one standard for every line.
All 42 chapters of the central budget, line by line: every item costed, classified, and open to challenge — alongside a ten-year renewal programme that closes the deficit.
2026 CENTRAL BUDGET · 42 CHAPTERS · 782 LINE ITEMS · EVERY CLAIM TRACED TO SOURCE
- Total expenditure
- 43,781HUF billion
- Total revenue
- 39,563HUF billion
- Chapters audited
- 42
- Year-1 saving
- 2,233HUF billion
The findings
Where the 2026 budget goes
Every line item measured against the same declared standard — from the largest ministries down to the smallest item: keep, freeze, phase out, or cut.
2,233 HUF bn
identified Year-1 saving · 5.1% of expenditure
Flagship study · May 2026
Hungary 2026: A Line-by-Line Budget Audit
A line-by-line audit of all 42 chapters of Hungary's 2026 central budget, plus a ten-year renewal programme that closes the deficit and funds a Tax Reform Dividend. The sequence is explicit: the tax wedge on labour first, then consumption taxes, with sectoral surtaxes last. Every step is published openly, every figure traced to its source.
42
chapters audited, with line-item analysis
2,233 HUF bn
Year-1 saving · 5.1% of expenditure
10 years
renewal programme with a Tax Reform Dividend
How we work
AI-assisted. Principle-driven. Fully transparent.
01
Every line item, analysed
A multi-agent AI system reads every one of the 42 chapters of Hungary's 2026 budget, across thousands of line items, applying the same analytical framework throughout — at a scale and pace no human team could sustain.
02
A stated standard
Every line is asked the same four questions: what it funds, what happens if it stops, who the current arrangement protects, and what it does to investment and productivity. The standard was fixed in advance and is set out in the methodology.
03
Open to correction
We document everything. Not every figure has been checked by hand — we say so openly, and we welcome corrections. Rigorous scrutiny of our numbers is exactly what we hope to provoke.
Who we are
Our mission
Concrete methods, not a worldview
Prices carry information no central planner can have. Decision-makers respond to incentives. Long-run prosperity depends on the quality of institutions. These are the working hypotheses we apply, line by line.
Traced to source, open to challenge
Knowledge grows through error correction. We trace every figure back to its source, publish every conclusion openly, and welcome corrections.
The long-run cost of intervention
Under which institutional conditions can Hungary become both freer and more prosperous, and what real transition costs does any serious reform carry — those are the questions we examine.
Research
Latest publications
Hungary 2026: A Line-by-Line Budget Audit
A line-by-line audit of all 42 chapters of Hungary’s 2026 central budget — and a ten-year renewal programme that closes the deficit and funds a Tax Reform Dividend.
Read more →Chapter XVII — Ministry of Energy
The chapter's largest item is not investment but a price-cap financing vehicle. Line by line: what the framework keeps and what it phases out — from flood protection to the utility price-cap fund.
Read more →Chapter I — National Assembly
The National Assembly chapter classifies HUF 348 billion of legislative, regulatory, and discretionary spending — protecting what is constitutionally indispensable while phasing out party-foundation grants and prestige capital programmes.
Read more →Independent analysis
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