Hungarian Parliament approves new central bank decision-makers

Lawmakers on Monday approved the appointment of Zoltán Kovács and Éva Búza as external members of the rate-setting Monetary Council of Hungary’s central bank (NBH).

Both candidates were approved with 126 votes in favour and 60 against.

Kovács and Búza have been appointed to replace Bianka Parragh and György Kocziszky. Parragh’s six-year mandate expired days earlier, while Kocziszky’s mandate ends soon.

Their nomination had been approved by parliament’s economy committee earlier in the day.

Kovács, who heads the Centre for Business Studies of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), at the hearing outlined his decades of experience as an economist working for investment banks and as the deputy chief executive of state-owned Magyar Posta.

Búza, chief executive of guarantor Garantiqa, told lawmakers that higher food, fuel and energy prices were driving inflation in Hungary that was outpacing price rises in other countries in the region.

As we wrote before, economic policymaking already “took a wrong turn” in 2021, before the war in Ukraine and sanctions of 2022. This was said by György Matolcsy, the head of Hungary’s central bank (Magyar Nemzeti Bank, MNB) told MPs a few weeks ago, details HERE.

Source: MTI