Hungary is in somewhat of a boom after the economy is set to expand by four percent both this year and next, the finance minister revealed.
What’s more, retail sales increased by 7.8 percent year-on-year in May, according to an analysis by ING.
Mihály Varga told commercial Inforadio on Tuesday that international economic players agree with the government’s assessment that Hungary is on a sustainable growth path, which allows the economy to expand.
Meanwhile, ING stated that the better-than-expected retail sales data is mainly due to food shops, where turnover increased by 5.8 percent year-on-year. A strong performance was also noted in both non-food shops (9.7 percent YoY) and in fuel retailing (8.1 percent YoY).
Minister Varga said that the growth path that Hungary has been on since 2013 has also been supported by the external environment.
The minister added that the 2019 budget would ensure steady economic growth, noting that reserves will be increased by 50 percent to more than 300 billion HUF (909.2m EUR).
The minister acknowledged that the budget calculates with a stronger HUF/EUR exchange rate than the rates seen in the recent weeks but said he did not believe that the weakening of the forint posed a risk to the general public or the balance of the budget.
He stated that inflation continues to remain below 3 percent and the oil price is not critical either, so the government does not plan on intervening.