Finance Minister Mihály Varga and Zsolt Nyitrai, the prime minister’s chief advisor, said pensioners can count on Hungary’s government in a video posted on Facebook.
Minister Varga said that while there was a war waging in a neighboring country and the Middle East, and the budget was under extraordinary pressure, pensioners could count on the government. After last year’s 18.5 percent pension increase, payments were raised by 6 percent early this year and the 13th month pension, which the left-wing government discontinued, was again paid out in February, the minister said. “The good news is”, he added, that the 6 percent pension increase would mean an increase in the real value of pensions as annual inflation was expected to be lower than this. The government, he said, was keeping its promise made in 2010 to maintain the purchasing power of pensions and even increase it. “Since 2010, we have doubled the number of pensions and increased their real value by 20 percent,” Minister Varga said. Nyitrai said “Hungarians owe our elderly compatriots a debt of gratitude. They created the solid foundations on which we can build. Their knowledge and wisdom are indispensable. We stand up for the interests of pensioners and are protecting their pensions,” he said.