Is Hungary’s economic growth dependant on EU funds?

The Hungarian economy is capable of achieving a growth rate of about 2.5 percent on its own without European Union funds, Árpád Kovács, head of the Fiscal Council, said on Wednesday.

“This is what needs to be raised to at least 3.5 percent,” Kovács told public Kossuth Radio.

With EU funds kept in view, Hungary’s government targets GDP growth of 4.1 percent this year and 4.3 percent in 2018.

Kovács called the view that economic growth in Hungary would cease without EU funds “misleading criticism”.

Last year proved that the Hungarian economy is capable of achieving a growth rate above 2 percent even without EU funds, Kovács said.

He said the amount of funding Hungary receives from the EU was about equal to the interest on the funds it borrows from the markets that add to the country’s public debt.

Hungary’s economic policy has a lot more leeway to operate now than it did in 2010, Kovács said, arguing that this was proven by the fact that the government is capable of financing advance payments of EU funding from the state budget.

Source: MTI