The first decade of the new millennium brought about economic stagnation, including in cultural funding. This was exacerbated by the global economic crisis. Penury of public funds is not counterbalanced by the sizable influx from the European Structural Funds, which can be used for running costs only if justified as development, e.g., human capacity building, regional (urban, rural) development etc.
Important features of the cultural finances of the current government (after 2010) have been
- centralisation: functions taken over by the state from local governments.
- concentration of resources in selected institution like the MMA, lately the Petőfi Literary Museum.
- frequent ad hoc interventions of scales that significantly alter the final balances from the initial annual budgets.
- generous resources for selected projects of iconic value for the current administration.
Indicator 1: About 170 EUR, public cultural expenditure Eurostat – Cofog 08/2, all levels of government, per capita in 2019.
Indicator 2: This corresponds to 1.1% of the GDP (Cofog), or 1.2% (KSH).
Indicator 3: The share of the total public expenditure in 2019 was 2.5%.
In 2019, the population of Hungary was 9.8 million. According to Eurostat/Cofog, total general government expenditure on culture was 1665 million EUR. In 2019, among EU countries, Hungary registered by far the largest ratio to GDP of government expenditure on Cofog 08, ‘recreation, culture and religion’, over 3% of GDP.
No further detailed information is available on expenditure after 2009. Access to financial data has become even more difficult than before; the website of the State Secretariat for Culture is limited to news, announcements and to the presentation of the structure and main responsibilities. Links lead to the 13 subordinate institutions only.
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