Finance Minister Mihály Varga said Hungary's economy is in better health than after the previous crisis and grew by 6.4 percent this year as opposed to a contraction of 6.6 percent the year after the 2008 crisis.
In a Facebook post, the minister said there are now 4.7 million people in employment, 1 million more than 12 years ago, adding that the jobless rate has decline from 12 percent in 2009 to 3.8 percent today. Meanwhile, average earnings before tax have gone up from HUF 198,000 (EUR 535) to HUF 428,000, while the minimum wage is increasing to HUF 200,000 on Jan 1, from HUF 75,500 in 2009. Personal income tax has declined from 36 to 15 percent, while from Jan 1. tax on employment will have decreased from 33.5 to 13 percent. The government also slashed the corporate tax rate from 20 to 9 percent, Minister Varga noted. The value of investments this year came to HUF 15,000 billion as against HUF 5,500 billion in 2009, the minister noted. And whereas industrial production shrank by 17.7 percent in the year after the previous crisis, it grew by 11 percent this year, he said. Public debt held by foreigners has halved from 60 to 30 percent, Minister Varga noted, adding that the proportion of foreign currency loans held by households has gone down from 67 to 0.5 percent. Government spending on debt servicing, meanwhile, has shrunk from 4.1 to 2.3 percent, the minister said.