Mixed crisis record | Budapest Newspaper

Central bank president György Matolcsy writes of a mixed balance in managing the corona crisis. Monetary policy passed the test, and no other EU country was able to crank up the lending business as dynamically as Hungary. However, fiscal policy is pulling the overall rating down, writes “the right hand” of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a new opinion piece in the government-affiliated daily “Magyar Nemzet”.

Without the effects of the economic upturn that was saved from 2019, Hungary’s economic performance fell back to 15th to 17th place in the EU in terms of its dynamism in the crisis year 2020, noted Matolcsy. But because companies borrowed 10% and households 9% more, Hungary’s economy did not ultimately collapse, was the conclusion of the MNB President. “Without the exemplary functioning of the financial system, Hungary would have presented one of the weakest crisis management systems in the EU,” it says, in stark contrast to the government’s hymns of praise.

The government intended to make public investments more dynamic, but ultimately failed to do so. A mistake was the hack with the VAT for new apartments. The health care system only got through the Corona crisis successfully by “ceasing normal operations”. Time and again, Matolcsy criticizes the faltering digitization of Hungarian society and economy.

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