Hungary backtracked on a promise to
cut a special bank tax in half and will raise a planned
transaction levy to avoid a freeze of development fund after the
European Union said previous measures were insufficient.
The EU estimates Hungary’s budget gap will widen to as much as 3.9 percent of economic output in 2013 from the government’s goal of 2.7 percent for this year and next even after measures announced this month, Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said at a news conference in Budapest today, announcing steps improving next year’s balance by 367 billion forint ($1.7 billion).
The government disagrees with the EU’s analysis, which is “baseless and mistaken from an economic and a professional point of view,” Matolcsy said. Still, “Hungary can’t take the risk that the EU will strip us of
The EU estimates Hungary’s budget gap will widen to as much as 3.9 percent of economic output in 2013 from the government’s goal of 2.7 percent for this year and next even after measures announced this month, Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy said at a news conference in Budapest today, announcing steps improving next year’s balance by 367 billion forint ($1.7 billion).
The government disagrees with the EU’s analysis, which is “baseless and mistaken from an economic and a professional point of view,” Matolcsy said. Still, “Hungary can’t take the risk that the EU will strip us of
