Hungary’s debt service payments doubled at the end of the Q3 of last year, putting the country on track to overtake Italy for the highest level of debt service costs in the European Union in 2023.
Interest payments rose to 2.5 trillion forints ($7.1 billion) in the January-September period, twice as much as in the same period in 2022, the statistics office in Budapest said Wednesday.
Last month, the central bank estimated that debt service costs would rise to 4.3% of the country’s economic output in 2023 and may only fall slightly to 4.2% this year, the worst in the EU.
Hungary became one of the year’s first emerging-market sovereigns on Wednesday to sell dollar-bonds to meet rising financing needs.
The country increased borrowing in the previous year in order to make up for the suspension of EU funds by the European Commission due to the alleged lack of adherence to human rights and the rule of law.