Concerning speculations on Hungary’s EU membership as reported in the press, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said “there is no point” in listening to those voices since “unfounded rumours of exit plans have been spread about many countries”. Being an EU member continues to provide benefits to Hungary, he added.
On another subject, Gulyás said that Hungary’s 17.9 percent GDP growth in the last quarter was the third highest in Europe, and Hungary, after Sweden, Poland, and Romania, was the fourth country where the economy had reached its pre-pandemic levels. The latest figure suggests that the government’s pledge of tax refunds to families if the GDP reaches 5.5 percent “could come true”, he said.
Gulyás also announced a “higher than ever” pension premium,
under which a retiree with a pension of 80,000 forints (EUR 228) a month would get a premium of 20,000 forints (EUR 57) if the growth is 4.5 percent or even 60,000 forints (EUR 171) if the economic growth reaches 6.5 percent, adding that the growth figure was expected above 6 percent.
However, Gulyás called the EU’s sanctions against Russia “futile” and “especially harmful for the Hungarian economy’. He said that the Hungarian government supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity, adding that it was in Hungary’s interest that “there should not be another cold war”.
Gulyás welcomed the success of the August 20 celebrations,
and insisted that the revenues of hotels and catering facilities had far outreached the cost of the festivities. He declined to comment on critical remarks concerning certain components of the programmes, but called it “amusing” that “gay pride participants call state celebrations kitsch”.
Source: MTI
