The main aim of the analysis is to present the processes determining the implementation of the 2021 central budget and their macroeconomic background with a five-year look back. The analysis considers the fulfilment of the public debt rule as the main criterion for assessing macroeconomic and budgetary developments, and thus focuses on the factors that have an impact on it and have a significant impact on growth and balance. In 2021, the Hungarian economy will have experienced a surge in growth, reaching or exceeding the level of the year before the coronavirus epidemic (2019) for several indicators. The analysis explores how macroeconomic developments have contributed to the increase in fiscal revenues and how fiscal policy has helped the economy to rebound rapidly. The analysis also shows how the trends in 2017-2019 were interrupted by the epidemic crisis in 2020 and how the rapid rebound in 2021 can be seen as a continuation of past trends and the impact of crisis response measures and crisis-related factors.