Hungarian Socialists call on government to intervene on behalf of weak forint

The government and the central bank should take measures to protect Hungary’s weakening currency, Socialist deputy leader László Szakács told a press conference on Monday.

Szakács warned that the forint was “at a nadir” compared to the euro. He noted a “hundred-billion forint hole” in the budget and accelerating inflation.

Szakács said international companies were using the weak currency “to make profits to the detriment of Hungarian employees”. He said that large companies were paying wages in forints, but their accounts were based in euros.

“If a multinational pays 300,000 forints to an employee, this had cost 1,000 euros earlier but now costs only 880-900 euros”.

According to the Socialist politician, residency bonds issued to foreigners under a government scheme were about to mature and investors would need to be paid their money back in euros.

“The Hungarian taxpayer will again suffer,” he said.

Szakács said he would ask Mihály Varga, the finance minister, if enough budget reserves were available to cope with the weakening of the forint. Further, DK will turn to central bank governor György Matolcsy for information about how much the national bank has profited from not preventing the weakening of the Hungarian currency.

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Source: MTI