Hungarians still don’t trust the forint: they buy outstanding amounts of foreign currency

forint euro bills
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EU-record Hungarian inflation led to a surge in people buying foreign currency at the beginning of the year. Hungarians took advantage of the strengthening forint to buy large amounts of currency in the first months of 2023.

Huge amounts of foreign currency

Taking advantage of the strengthening of the forint at the beginning of the year, Hungarians made large purchases of foreign currency, writes BiztosDöntés.hu based on data from the National Bank of Hungary (MNB). According to the central bank’s statistics, people bought HUF 48.7 billion worth of euros and HUF 11 billion worth of dollars from currency exchanges in the first two months of the year.

Experts haven’t seen this since 2015

Such a strong start to the year has not been seen since 2015. 30 percent more euros and nearly three-quarters more dollars were sold in January and February this year than in the same period in 2022, said Péter Gergely, the site’s financial expert. According to statistics recorded by the central bank since 2010, January’s HUF 28 billion of euro withdrawals is the fifth highest figure, he said.

A good way to fight inflation

According to Péter Gergely, the heightened interest in currency purchases may be due not only to the strengthening of the forint, but also to the fact that inflation in euro is significantly lower. Thus, many people may think that they would rather keep their savings in euro than lose a quarter of their purchasing value in forint in a year.

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