HungaryTrends – Business and financial news from the previous week

Budapest (MTI) – See below MTI’s main business and financial news from the previous week:

HIGHER NON-INTEREST REVENUE LIFTS OTP Q4 PROFIT OVER EUR 91.5m

OTP Bank’s fourth-quarter after-tax profit climbed by an annual 70 percent to 28.3 billion forints (EUR 91.5m) as net revenue from commissions and fees rose and the lender’s “other non-interest income” doubled, a consolidated earnings report showed.

OTP BOARD TO PROPOSE HUF 190-PER-SHARE DIVIDEND

The board of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL will propose payment of a 53.2 billion forint dividend on last year’s earnings, CFO László Bencsik said after the lender released its fourth-quarter earnings report. The dividend works out to a little more than 190 forints per share, after taking into account treasury shares.

MOL NET INCOME REACHES HUF 43.5 BN IN Q4

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL booked net income of 43.5 billion forints in the fourth quarter, improving over a 435.3 billion forint loss in the base period, when it wrote down more than 500 billion forints on production assets, an earnings report showed. After-tax profit reached 32.1 billion forints, well under the 53.5 billion forint estimate by analysts polled by Portfolio.hu.

NBH KEEPS BASE RATE ON HOLD, AS EXPECTED

The National Bank of Hungary’s Monetary Council decided to keep the central bank’s key rate on hold at 0.90 percent, as expected. The council has left the base rate on hold since signalling an end to an easing cycle at a policy meeting in May 2016.

ORBÁN SETS GDP GROWTH RATE OVER 5 PC AS GOAL AFTER 2020

Hungary’s economy has to grow by an annual 3-5 percent in the coming years and the rate should climb over 5 percent after 2020, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at an event hosted by the Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (MKIK). Read more HERE.