The pre-crisis growth of Central and Eastern Europe was based on significant external fundraising. The gross external debt of the 11 new Member States last year reached 80 per cent of the GDP, doubling in the course of eight years. The reason for the indebtedness in Baltic and South-East Member...

Within its scope of activities the State Audit Office carries out a systematic analysis of factors that pose a risk to meeting the public debt rule criteria. The present article is based on the SAO study, conducted as part of the above-mentioned activities with the aim of exploring the budgetary...

The author analyses the possibilities of substitution between state debt management and state property. He postulates that there are possibilities for substitution over a 2–4-year time span. In the short run, debt can be decreased by spending less on the refurbishment of physical assets, but...

The President of the State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO), in his capacity as a member of the Fiscal Council, will rely on the knowledge gathered by the auditors during their on-site audits aimed at the establishment of the opinion of the SAO on the budg-et appropriation bill, and in the course...

With regard to home ownership and mortgage lending in Western Europe in general three models are referred to; the main cri-terion for classification of the types is who the home is owned by and how great a role mortgage lending plays. In Hungary the higher than 90 per cent rate of homes...

The efficiency of public finances, and in a wider envelope the efficacy of the operation of the pub lic sector, is one of the most significant research areas of Állami Számvevõszék Kutatóintézete [State Audit Office Research Institute] (hereon referred to as the Institute).1 Thus, we need...

In line with the international trends, in the activities of the State Audit Office (SAO) more and more weight is given to the advisory services provided to the National Assembly and the government. The work conducted in the Research Institute of the State Audit Office, earlier in SAO's...

Every year, the State Audit Office (SAO) gives an opinion on the budget bill, examining if the planning methods applied and the amendments proposed by the regulators back up the implementation of the main appropriations of the budget bill.