Hungary must not give up euro-zone aspirations, says Varga

Hungary’s economic policy cannot lose sight of its long-term goal to enable the country to eventually join the euro zone, the economy minister said on Thursday.

Addressing a business lunch organised by the Joint Venture Alliance, Mihály Varga insisted at the same time that Hungary was in no rush to adopt the euro.

Answering a question, Varga said Hungary must wait and see how things play out in the euro zone, noting that other countries looked like they were doing the same thing and were not in a rush to join either.

“It is impossible to keep a currency system healthy in the long run when it has a unified monetary policy but different fiscal policies,” Varga said.

“There is no way to stabilise the exchange rate when the European Central Bank sets a common interest rate.”

At this stage Hungary only fails to meet one of the euro convergence criteria, but it deliberately has not pegged the forint’s exchange rate to the euro, he said. 

Once the decision is made, Hungary will be ready to join the euro zone,

Varga said, adding, at the same time, that the economy would have to be competitive enough for Hungary to adopt the common currency.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI