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Economy minister: Hungary reforms working
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Baile Tusnad, Romania, July 23 (MTI) – Hungary’s reforms are working and the economy is now on a new growth path which must be stabilised, economy minister Mihaly Varga said at an economic forum at the 26th annual Balvanyos Summer University in Baile Tusnad (Tusnadfurdo), in Szeklerland, central Romania, on Thursday.
When the current government was sworn in in 2010, Hungary, like Greece, was among the world’s ten riskiest economies, Varga said. “We were a country on the brink of default,” the minister added.
Hungary today is “light years ahead of Greece, which is still on life support”, he said. Unlike Greece, Hungary was able to pay back the IMF loan of over 7 billion euros, which it took up in 2008, Varga said, adding that the government has also paid back 4 billion euros of the 5.5 billion euro loan it took up from the European Commission.
The minister said the government had balanced the budget and has been keeping the deficit below 3 percent “for years”, while public debt is constantly shrinking. He said Hungary achieved the second largest public debt reduction after Greece.
On the topic of Hungarian-Romanian economic relations, Varga said the completion of the North Transylvanian motorway would be a major step forward. He said that bilateral trade could be intensified, as Romania accounts for merely 4.4 percent of Hungary’s foreign trade turnover.