HUNGARYTRENDS – The most important news in business and finance from the previous week

Budapest (MTI) – See below MTI’s main business and financial news from the previous week:

HUNGARY CPI CLIMBS TO 1.1 PC IN NOV

Consumer prices in Hungary rose 1.1 percent year-on-year in November, accelerating from a 1.0 percent increase in the previous month. The headline figure was slightly lower than the 1.2 percent analysts’ consensus.

BUDAPEST CLEARS NEXT HURDLE IN BID TO HOST 2024 OLYMPICS

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the second round of documentation for Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. The IOC declared Budapest “a perfectly suitable city” that is “an equal competitor with Paris and Los Angeles”, Balazs Furjes, the government commissioner for the bid, told MTI.

HUNGARY INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT EDGES DOWN 2.1PC IN OCT

Hungary’s industrial output fell 2.1 percent year-on-year in October, slowing from a 3.7 percent decline in the previous month, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data. In a month-on-month comparison, industrial output rose 2.0 percent, adjusted for seasonal and workday effects.

GOVT SUBMITS BILL THAT WOULD SET 9 PC FLAT-RATE CORPORATE TAX

Economy Minister Mihaly Varga submitted a bill to Parliament that would establish a 9 percent flat-rate corporate tax from January 1, 2017. The bill would also reduce the payroll tax from 27 percent to 22 percent from next year and to 20 percent from 2018.

PARLT APPROVES AMENDMENTS TO PUBLIC PROCUREMENT LAW

Parliament approved amendments to legislation that will require public institutions to get at least three bids for procurements of 1 million forints (EUR 3,180) or more. The law also allows the government to exempt certain purchases from public procurement rules “if the use of a public procurement procedure would not serve the aim of efficiently using public monies with a view to the particularities of purchases made with support”.

ENKSZ buys EDF Demasz

Hungary’s state-owned utilities company ENKSZ signed a contract to acquire EDF Demasz, a regional electricity distributor, from France’s EDF International. The transaction is expected to be closed early next year, pending regulatory approval. Demasz supplies about 775,000 retail and business customers in southeast Hungary.

LE BÉLIER TO INVEST ALMOST HUF 10 BN IN HUNGARY

French automotive industry supplier Le Bélier will invest nearly 10 billion forints (EUR 32m) in three of its plants in Hungary, a company official announced. Le Bélier won a 2.2 billion forint government grant for the investment which will create 350 jobs. Read more HERE.

FUTUREAL SELLS POLISH SHOPPING CENTRE FOR EUR 88.5M

Hungarian property developer Futureal sold its Nova Park shopping centre in Gorzow Wielkopolski (W Poland) to a joint venture of MAS Real Estate and Prime Kapital for 88.5 million euros. Futureal opened Nova Park with Irish partner Caelum Development in the spring of 2012. It bought out Caelum’s 50 percent stake in the centre in 2014.

EC STEPS UP INFRINGEMENT PROCEDURE AGAINST HUNGARY

The European Commission stepped up an infringement procedure against Hungary for failing to implement directives on gas and electricity. The EC formally requested that Hungary comply with legal provisions that include rules on the unbundling of transmission network operators from energy suppliers and producers and on strengthening the independence and powers of national regulators in a “reasoned opinion”, marking the second step in an infringement procedure. Read more HERE.

MUSEUM DIRECTOR BUYS NEWS WEEKLY FIGYELŐ

Mária Schmidt, the director of the House of Terror Museum in Budapest, has signed a deal to acquire news weekly Figyelő from Mediacity, she told news portal Origo. “If I had not appeared as an investor, the paper would have gone under,” Schmidt said. “I am first and foremost a financial investor in the paper, and I have put among my most important goals continuing the high level of professionalism that is already present there,” she added.

Source: MTI