Hungary/ 6. Financing of culture  

6.3 Public cultural expenditure broken down by level of government

Table 5:     Public cultural expenditure: by level of government, 2008

Source:     Hungarian State Treasury.
Note:         An exchange rate of 260 applies.

Maintaining central cultural institutions (including cultural institutes abroad as well as the administration of the ministry) takes up a considerable share of the state expenditure. Individual cultural projects were mainly subsidised from the National Cultural Fund. In 2008, the total amount allocated by the Fund was 8.4 billion HUF. The Minister attempted to increase the resources of the National Cultural Fund, by extending the cultural contribution to be paid on a number of goods and services to new items, including clothes, furniture as well as Internet provision, but so far has not been successful.

The records of the State Treasury indicate a slight decrease in the central cultural expenditure from 2006 to 2007; the share of culture in the central budget of the government went down from 1.27 to 1.04%.

On the other hand, the continued marked trend of decentralisation is clearly visible. The cultural spending of local governments grew by about 78% between 2002 and 2007, when the cumulated inflation was less than 30%. For example, cities spent over 95% more on museums than five years earlier; over 50% more on libraries, local television, music and other arts respectively.