February will bring in an extra hundred billion again, but it is almost certain that only a fraction of the money will earn interest

After a four-year break – February 2022 – households can count on significant additional income in February this year: in addition to the full 13th month pension since 2024, the gun money will arrive for the second time to those working for the affected organizations, and as a completely new element, the first weekly part of the 14th month pension will also appear among the extra income – draws attention to Mihály Barát, financial journalist at BiztosDöntés.hu. These three items alone, he adds, will increase household income by approximately HUF 1,200 billion, which will obviously also be felt in savings.

“The extra government benefits provided at the beginning of 2022 affected a much wider range – since then the personal income tax refund was also on the list – but the situation is definitely similar now in that households will generate significant additional income, which in principle will also affect the savings portfolio. can increase noticeably” – reminds Mihály Barát.

In addition, this year we can count on several elements that will also leave significant income for households, but they will only appear on a monthly basis or their impact will be more indirect: for example, the gradual extension of tax exemption for mothers with children, or the introduction of public service home support.

Based on the experiences of four years ago, however, there is no reason for too much optimism: in February 2022, the stock of retail deposits reported by the Hungarian National Bank jumped by 865 billion forints – 7.2 percent – ​​to 12,900 billion forints in a single month, meaning that the majority of the extra income ended up in retail current accounts. “This in itself would not be a problem, but the majority of the newly arrived money continued to live as untied current account deposits, meaning it was not invested later” – emphasizes the financial journalist of BiztosDöntés.hu, adding that it is feared that this will also be the case with most of this year’s extra benefits, and thus those affected will forgo tens of billions of forints in returns.

According to data from the central bank, the stock of retail deposits in Hungary rose to a new high of over 13,750 billion forints by November 2025, reflecting a 9.3 percent increase compared to the eleventh month of 2024.

It is noteworthy, however, that the volume of sight and current account deposits increased by 12.5 percent, to 11,737 billion forints in one year, so the population kept 85.4 percent of the money in bank accounts without being tied up. “This is an extremely high rate, especially if we consider that ten years ago almost half of retail deposits were tied up, and five years ago 23 percent were tied up,” highlights Mihály Barát. Due to the high proportion of idle money, households are depriving themselves of several hundred billion forints of interest annually.