Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said conditions are favorable for enacting a stable economic policy in the next two years.
Speaking at a Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MKIK) conference, the prime minister said that until 2020, Hungary was on an upward path, but then the pandemic and the war in Ukraine forced the country to “shift to lower gear” between 2020 and 2024. Now there was a chance for growth to accelerate in 2024, he said, noting that the government wanted to support growth, and cutting spending risked the standard of living so that the deficit path would be reduced steadily, to 4.5% of GDP this year, to 3.7% next year and to 2.9% in 2026. EU finance ministers, he said, predicted it would take four years, post-pandemic, for all member states to stabilise their budget deficits below 3% and their public debt levels below 60%. If, for some reason, Hungary failed to cut its deficit and debt in three years, it still had another “buffer year” to do so without risking being penalised by the EU, he said. PM Orbán said a successful economic policy required competent finance and national economy ministries as well as the backing of a commerce chamber, and economic policy should be guided by “simple, common-sense considerations”.