PM Orbán announced 21 point economic programme, talks about “rolling dollars, euros”

Hungary has put all its cards on peace, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with public radio on Friday.

All cards on peace

Orbán said that in the past, whenever Hungary had faced difficulty, the communists and later the liberals had always blamed it on global economic trends. He said they had done this to shift the blame onto others, adding, at the same time, that external influences were important.

“We put all our cards on peace this year,” Orbán said. “We thought that the Democrat administration will fall in the US and a Republican government led by Donald Trump would take over, which will broker peace and in turn boost the economy.” “If it hadn’t turned out this way we would’ve been in big trouble…” he added.

He said the government’s prediction had turned out to be correct and it was expecting “a strong external impact on the Hungarian economy, that it will receive a push from the outside, too. So far, Hungary has lost some 6.5-7 billion euros due to the war,” he said.

Orbán announces 21 point economic programme

Meanwhile, the government “has its own plans”, and trusts that its 21 point economic programme, the philosophy of economic neutrality and peace would give “the Hungarian economy a big boost,” Orbán said. “I am counting on a fantastic year,” he said, adding, however, that he expected “no decision from Europe, Brussels, Paris or Berlin” that would have a positive impact on the Hungarian economy.

Orbán added, at the same time, that he did not expect any decisions from Brussels, Paris or Berlin either that would have a favourable effect on the Hungarian economy.

He argued that the EU was failing to fulfil the pledge it made in Budapest last November to lower European energy prices. Hungary, he said, was keeping energy prices low prices were expected to remain high in western Europe, “which is destroying the economy”.

The prime minister said Hungarians tended to be cautious, and security and predictability were the most important factors in how households managed their finances. Hungarians also tended to “think twice” about how they spent their money, he added.

Common sense instead of economists

But economists preferred that people consume and spend their money to have it circulating in the economy, Orbán said, adding, however, that “the world isn’t just economics”. He said that while it was good to be cautious, extreme caution caused the economy to slow, so it was best to let people make their own decisions.

Orbán said the government had its own intentions, plans, recommendations and schemes, and was asking the public to take part in them. “But then it’s up to them to decide whether they’ll take part in it, and it’s this decision that will determine the government’s economic policy,” he said. “Common sense is the best counsellor”.

He said people were becoming “a bit bolder after being very cautious last year”. More than 10,000 people have applied for subsidised loans for employees, while subsidies disbursed via the Demján Sándor Programme aimed at scaling up local SMEs “will be drawn down in seconds”, and a housing scheme is also being launched, he said. The prime minister said the Hungarian economy was in motion and gaining momentum this year.

A lot of money to be paid

He said Hungarians were “getting a lot of money now”, noting that the state has made 480 billion forints (EUR 1.2bn) of interest payments on retail government securities. “Something will happen with this money: either people will put it into another form of savings or they’ll spend some of it, or even distribute it within the family,” he said, noting it was important that this money enters the economy.

“If such a large sum goes from state coffers to the people, it will certainly have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the economy,” he added. Bond holders will receive another 300 billion forints in interest payments next month, he said. A total of some 800,000 families will be receiving interest payments, Orbán said, noting the minimum wage increase and the wage increases outpacing inflation.

Rolling dollars

Meanwhile, the prime minister said the most important task of the spring political season will be uncovering how American money was used to influence Hungarian public opinion while also developing defence mechanisms against such operations.

Orbán noted that the new US administration has released a list of individuals and organisations who have received funding from the US budget in recent years to influence other countries. “We’re also deeply involved in this,” he said, arguing that Hungarian “self-proclaimed civil organisations, media outlets, journalists and politicians” had also received donations.