The finance minister said that during the novel coronavirus epidemic, preserving jobs and restarting the economy has to take precedence over a “rigid insistence” to keep the budget deficit below 3 percent.
Finance Minister Mihály Varga told Kossuth Rádió that the Hungarian economy is likely to shrink in 2020. “At the moment”, the recession is estimated to be around 3 percent, he said.
At the same time, the International Monetary Fund has pronounced Hungary to be in a much more “crisis resistant” state than during the last crisis in 2008, and so it is likely to survive the epidemic with relatively mild damages.
Minister Varga said to preserve jobs, the government is supporting companies with a variety of financial tools. A development of a credit package is also in the last phases, he said.
A call center set up for advice on the coronavirus can be reached on +36-80-277-455 and +36-80-277-456 or by email koronavirus@bm.gov.hu