Hungary celebrated the 25th anniversary of its accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at an event in Budapest on Tuesday.
Speaking at the event, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said the OECD offered “genuine assistance” by making recommendations to support economic development “that take into consideration member countries’ interests and are shaped with fact-based analysis”.
This is “especially important” as Hungary has frequently been the target of “subjective, politically motivated” criticism from the European Union, he added.
Varga called the recent international agreement on a global minimum corporate tax “an OECD success”,
adding that the deal was reached after negotiations “based on mutual respect”.
OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann called Hungary’s economic development since the country’s OECD accession “a success story”. He said Hungary’s rate of economic growth is among the fastest among OECD members and highlighted the country’s “especially low” jobless rate and high rate of employment.
Meanwhile, the Socialists warned of growing poverty among pensioners. The gap between pensions and wages is growing, and a growing number of Hungarian pensioners are experiencing poverty, the Socialist head of parliament’s welfare committee said on Tuesday.
Lajos Kórózs told an online press conference that at the end of 2019,
as many as 270,000 pensioners were among the poorest ten percent of Hungarians,
going up from 26,000 in 2010. Pensions are “polarised”, and the system has become “rigid” so very few can choose early retirement, he said.
While 11.2 percent of GDP was spent on elderly care in 2010, that ratio fell to 8.3 percent by 2019, he said. Meanwhile, “there is plenty of money for prestige investments,” he added. Should the opposition come to power at next spring’s general election, the Socialists would ensure a more flexible retirement system and launch a pension correction scheme, he said.
Read alsoIs the price of groceries really skyrocketing in Hungary?
Source: MTI
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The Soviet EU cannot handle a free, democratic, safe independent country like Hungary.