Hungarian fund pays after the Russian bank’s failure – last week’s business news

VARGA BLAMES EU FUNDING HOLDBACK FOR LOWER GROWTH

Finance Minister Mihály Varga said Hungary’s GDP growth would have been “over 5pc” last year had the country been paid its Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funding in due time in a statement issued ahead of a meeting with his European Union peers in Brussels. “By holding back that funding, the European Commission hurt Hungary’s competitiveness and interfered in competition among member states,” he said. He noted that Hungary’s GDP growth reached 4.6 percent last year, over the EU average.

MOL GROUP PARTS WITH 39 SLOVENIAN PETROL STATIONS

Hungary’s MOL Group agreed to sell 39 of its petrol stations in Slovenia to Shell to win European Commission approval of its acquisition of OMV Slovenija. OMV announced in June 2021 that it agreed to sell its Slovenian unit to MOL for EUR 301m. The deal includes 120 petrol stations under the OMV, Euro Truck and Avanti/DISKONT brands. In June 2022, the EC said it opened an in-depth investigation to assess the planned acquisition.

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GOVT RAISES TAX-FREE PER DIEM THRESHOLD FOR HAULIERS

The government raised the tax-free per diem threshold for hauliers, increasing the per diem threshold for domestic routes from 3,000 forints to 9,000 forints (EUR 22.7) and for foreign routes from 60 euros to 85 euros. The Hungarian hauliers’ associations MKFE and NiT Hungary acknowledged the government measure as a “strategic decision”.

RATE-SETTERS AUGUR FASTER DISINFLATION FROM MID-YEAR

Members of the Monetary Council of the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) said disinflation was expected to accelerate from the middle of the year at a monthly policy meeting in February. “Decision makers pointed out that looking ahead, disinflationary effects were expected to increase in the coming months. After peaking and then gradually moderating in the first half of 2023, from the middle of the year domestic inflation was expected to decline more markedly, which was also supported by the fading of base effects,” the minutes from the meeting showed.

LENDERS REFUNDED REST OF CONTRIBUTION TO COVER SBERBANK DEPOSITOR COMPENSATION

The board of Hungary’s National Deposit Insurance Fund (OBA) decided to refund the rest of a 73.5 billion forint one-off contribution lenders paid to cover compensation for depositors at failed Russian-owned Sberbank Magyarország. OBA’s board decided to refund banks close to 29.5 billion forints by the end of March. OBA earlier refunded the banks 44 billion forints of the contribution.

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MVM CALLS TENDER FOR UP TO 1,650MW OF POWER PLANT CAPACITY

State-owned energy group MVM is calling tenders for the construction of combined cycle gas turbine power plant blocks with total capacity up to 1,650MW, the Ministry of Energy Affairs said. The tenders are for two CCGT blocks with capacity up to 500 MW apiece at the MVM Tisza Power Plant in Tiszaujvaros and one block with capacity up to 650 MW at the Matra Power Plant in Visonta, both in eastern Hungary. Construction of the plants is expected to take three to three-and-a-half years. MVM is also adding 800 MW of new regulation capacity to the grid.

HUNGARY COULD RE-LAUNCH FEED-IN TARIFF APPLICATIONS IN 2023

Hungary could start accepting household applications to join the country’s feed-in tariff scheme again “as soon as this year”, Energy Minister Csaba Lantos said in an interview published in weekly Mandiner. The government suspended household applications to join the feed-in tariff scheme in the autumn, after home solar panel volume outpaced network capacity. Lantos told Mandiner Hungary’s solar capacity could reach 10-12 GW by 2030, well over the 6 GW target.

Source: MTI