Hungary can speed up increases in defence spending, minister says

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary could increase defence spending to NATO's target of 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2024, two years earlier than originally planned, Defence Minister Istvan Simicsko said on Wednesday. "We have made a decision to boost our defence spending by 0.1 percent," Simicsko told a NATO summit in Budapest. "We also have a plan on how we could accelerate this and we are ready to bring forward reaching the 2 percent defence spending level to 2024 if needed." Simicsko told Reuters in January that Hungary would increase its defence spending gradually to 2 percent of GDP by 2026 from 0.95 percent now. (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs, editing by Larry King)