Hungarian population’s assets are many on paper

According to vg.hu, household financial assets can reach HUF 40 billion soon. The statistics are provided by the Hungarian central bank. The population owned HUF 39 574.4 billion in September. If this is divided by the roughly 4.1 million households it means more than 9.6 million forint saving per household. Of course, the population has debts as well, but the net financial assets are still about HUF 7.7 million – in theory.

The figures also take into account the savings that are basically unreachable for the investors. For example, the amount that the former members of the private pension systems could withdraw from the state was HUF 2846.2 billion in late September.

However, the Pension Reform and Debt Reduction Fund – which managed the assets of the pension funds transferred to the state – ceased to exist in late January, and its assets were already gone by the end of 2013. Because of a methodological change this amount also belongs to the savings of the households. Previously, such a transfer of capital would reduce the household savings and increase the assets of the state, but the new accounting shows that the asset takeover did not affect the balance of the two sectors; the state’s obligation will gradually disappear in 35 years.