BUDAPEST, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Hungary's economy could recover very quickly once restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted, Marton Nagy, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's senior economic aide said on Tuesday.

Nagy told private broadcaster InfoRadio in an interview that the economy could expand by 5% to 6% this year and possibly accelerate to the 6% to 7% range in 2022, when Orban will face a parliamentary election.

"This means that we will leave neighbouring countries behind," Nagy said. "We can emerge from the crisis with the fastest pace of (economic) growth in the region."

The forecasts are substantially higher than the 3.5% pace the Finance Ministry forecast for 2021 and 5.4% for 2022. Nagy, a former central bank deputy governor, said the expansion would be driven by public and private investments.

Orban's government has extended a partial lockdown until the start of next month to contain the pandemic.

It was unclear when normal economic activity could resume as Hungary faces vaccine supply bottlenecks and unexpected headwinds, such as a shortage of components in the car sector, a mainstay of Hungarian growth.

The pandemic sent Hungary into its deepest recession since the global financial crisis and heavy government borrowing to finance measures to combat the pandemic have reversed a decline in public debt seen over the past decade.

"The structure of our economy is good, and it can recover quickly," Nagy said, adding that government investments would rise to 3 trillion forints ($10.16 billion) this year from last year's 2.5 trillion forints.

"Our crisis-fighting tool kit is nearly complete, I cannot say whether there will be any additional measures as I cannot see with full certainty when we can reopen the economy."

Orban's government is also offering up to 3 million forints for families to help them renovate their homes from this year. Nagy said measures to boost housing investments could add nearly 1% to this year's expected economic growth.

($1 = 295.19 forints) (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs. Editing by Catherine Evans and Mark Potter)