The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) is paying a HUF 50 billion dividend from last year’s earnings into the budget, the central bank has said, confirming a comment by governor György Matolcsy in daily Magyar Nemzet. The board of directors decided on the dividend proposal at a meeting on April 27. The NBH said the dividend will reduce the deficit by the equivalent of 0.15pc of GDP. The bank last paid a dividend in 2002. The board judged that based on profits accumulated in previous years and with further contributions in 2015 to profit reserves, the reserves have now reached a level which makes paying a dividend possible, the bank said. The NBH announced in February that it posted a record HUF 95 billion profit in 2015.