Hungary

Hungary’s stocks and currency fell after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government again resorted to its tactic of imposing special taxes on banks and other industries to plug gaps in its budget, Bloomberg News reported. It plans to keep current levels of windfall taxes on banks, energy and foreign-owned companies, despite earlier promises to lower them, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said on Monday. He said the measures would net the budget an additional 400 billion forint ($1.1 billion).
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Hungary further slowed the pace of cuts to the European Union’s highest key interest rate, with policymakers seeking to anchor the volatile forint in a riskier economic environment, Bloomberg News reported. The National Bank of Hungary reduced the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 7.75% on Tuesday, matching most forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. The unanimous decision compared with a 75 basis-point reduction in March and a full percentage point cut in February.
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Hungary's Central Bank said on Thursday repeated "attacks" by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government on its monetary policy could backfire and limit the scope for easing, Reuters reported. Orban and his former ally, central bank Governor Gyorgy Matolcsy, have been involved in an increasingly bitter policy spat since a 2022 election, with the sides trading blame over a surge in inflation to the highest levels in the European Union.
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