Basic foodstuffs such as bread, butter and lard today cost twice as much as a year ago, a politician of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said on Monday.
While the price of these products have “increased brutally”, several other basic items such as flour and eggs “are often simply missing from shelves”, Zoltán Varga told an online press conference.
He said that because of Hungary’s record high VAT in Europe, the government “is even making gains” on inflation.
Varga said the only solution to stop inflation would be to regain access to European Union funds and restore trust in the Hungarian economy.
In Austria, Mercedes V. Nemes has a golden life compared to Hungarian postpeople. She currently lives in Tyrol and has no plans to return home. She shared on TikTok how much a postperson earns in Austria today.
Compared to wages in Austria, EUR 1,300 may not seem like much, rtl.hu writes. However, Hungarian postal workers earn much less, while Hungarian prices are not much lower than those in the neighbour country.
In Austria, EUR 1300 is one of the lower salaries, with the average salary in the neighbouring country being about double that. However, in Hungary, HUF 500,000 counts as a great salary, well above the average.
We have not yet reached the peak of food inflation. According to the deputy secretary general of the National Association of Agricultural Producers, prices for some products could rise by up to 20 percent a month. Despite the increasing prices, there is no reduction in consumption. Market experts believe that there will be another Christmas rush this year, with no drop in food consumption.
Although people have to pay less for a small purchase in the shop than a month ago, this was due to the capped prices of eggs, milk and the low price of bread, according to a report by ATV News. Apples now cost 100 HUF (0.25 EUR) more than two months ago, when they were 299 HUF (0.74 EUR) per kilo. The price of tomatoes rose by 200 HUF (0.50 EUR) per kilo, index.hu says.
The cheapest eggs cost 799 and 699 HUF (1.99 and 1.74 EUR), but were almost twice as expensive in November. A litre of milk was almost 600 forints in shops a month earlier, but now it was only about half of that. Brown bread has also become cheaper, by 200 HUF. The price of 8-egg pasta has risen by 60 HUF (0.15 EUR), margarine by 50 HUF (0.12 EUR) and sour cream by 40 HUF (0.10 EUR).
According to the deputy secretary general of the National Association of Agricultural Producers, we have not yet reached the peak of food inflation. András Máhr, the deputy secretary general of the National Association of Agricultural Producers, pointed out that prices for certain products may rise by an average of 8-10 or even 20 percent per month.
Photo: Facebook
“Further increases should be expected mainly in meat products. The purchase price of Hungarian pork is linked to the German price, where prices have risen by 20 percent in the last period”
– the deputy secretary-general said in an interview with HÃradó. He added that if the forint was stronger, this would be felt in shops.
The government has made a decision
According to Index, the government has extended the price cap to new categories of food. Eggs and table potatoes, to reduce the impact of inflation and food price rises. The range of goods covered by the price cap has been extended to include:
eggs,
table potatoes,
flour,
sunflower oil,
pork,
chicken meat,
2.8 percent milk and
granulated sugar.
According to the latest announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture, the government has extended the price caps until 30 April 2023. According to Ministry Chief István Nagy, the need to maintain the price caps is due to the protracted war in Ukraine and the “misguided Brussels measures” that have led to sanction inflation.
Photo: Facebook
István Nagy explained that in addition to the price cap, it is necessary to ensure the availability of fixed-price products. To reach this, it has been determined that traders are obliged to sell the average daily quantity of the products concerned in 2021. The obligations will be monitored by the general consumer protection authority, i.e. the county and metropolitan government offices, with the involvement of the National Food Chain Safety Office.
No drop in food consumption
Market experts believe that there would be another Christmas rush this year, with no drop in food consumption. According to napi.hu, more and more customers pick local products off the shelves.
In November 2022, consumer prices were on average 22.5 percent higher than a year earlier. Food prices have risen by 43.8 percent, with meat products showing an even higher increase of over 50 percent. The preparations for Christmas and New Year’s Eve mean that we consume more food than at other times of the year.
One way to prevent the further rise in food prices would be the practice of putting high-quality, locally sourced food items in our baskets, napi.hu suggests. The end of the year is one of the busiest times of the year for trade, when shoppers are especially on the lookout for domestic food products in local markets as well as in grocery stores. The holiday is an opportunity for consumers to choose quality ingredients for their Christmas menus, most of which can be sourced from local producers.
According to a 2020 survey by the Institute of Agricultural Economics, more than 70 percent of consumers buy local, artisanal products on a regular basis. The experience shows that local products are also in demand in online shops during the festive season, whether it is cheese, jam, beigli or even gingerbread cookies.
Whereas Hungary agrees in principle on the need to cut down on the use of pesticides, consumers must be informed how much more food will cost as a result of the measure, the minister of agriculture said on Tuesday.
The European Union’s proposals will lead to a fall in agricultural production and higher food prices, István Nagy said in a statement. Further, the proposed measure would open up the bloc to cheap imports associated with food safety risks. So the impact study should detail the effects of the proposal in numbers, he added.
He noted that the majority of the EU Council has asked the European Commission to supplement its impact study with forecasts.
In its June proposal, the Commission said pesticides should be cut by half in all member states, the minister noted, adding that the various positions and outcomes of each country in terms of pesticide reduction had not been taken into consideration.
Another problem is that the proposal seeks a ban on certain pesticides in so-called sensitive areas, including nitrate-sensitive areas — covering almost 80 percent of the bloc’s cultivated areas. The resulting fall in crop yields would present an “unacceptable risk” amid the current war environment and would threaten food security, he added.
Whereas society would benefit from reducing the use of pesticides, health, environmental and climate protection considerations must be finely balanced against competitiveness and the economy, the minister said.
Months later than the European average, but around the time of the energy market liberalisation, Hungary finally started to adapt to the new energy market situation.
The decline in industrial gas consumption started already in the summer, but it was during the heating season that the drop in domestic consumption became really spectacular. In the last three months, Hungarians have saved more than 600 million cubic meters of gas,” says G7.
So far in 2022, the 27 EU member states have consumed less gas each month than they used to in previous years.
In Hungary, this process started a little later. According to daily flow data collected by the G7, domestic gas consumption fell only marginally in January-February, and even increased in March and April. One of the explanations for this is surely that the domestic population has not yet faced rising energy prices in the first half of the year.
While European households paid on average 45 percent more for electricity in the spring than a year earlier, and natural gas prices nearly doubled, prices in Hungary remained unchanged.
But at the beginning of August, Hungarians broke away from previous trends. By then, Hungarians had already gone through the increase in the tariffs, so the turnaround could be an effect of that, but as this is clearly not yet a heating season, it is more likely that we have seen an adjustment by industrial consumers. Since then, consumption this year has not returned to the levels we were used to and has fallen further behind as we entered the heating season.
In recent months, Hungarians have clearly been using less gas than temperatures would warrant.
The government has decided to expand its household utility price caps to state and local council-owned rental apartment buildings, the government commissioner in charge of the scheme said on Monday.
Zsolt Láng, the government commissioner in charge of developments in central Hungary, said the measure will be implemented retroactively from 1 August. The government decree on the decision will be published on Monday evening, he said.
Earlier, Krisztina Baranyi, mayor of the 9th district, and József Tóth, mayor of the 13th district, asked the government to amend the law, 444.hu reports. They asked for help for the approximately 800 families living in municipal rental apartments who, according to the energy supplier, are not covered by the rules for the protection of residential consumers.
The new price caps for potatoes and eggs might be more of a problem than a help. An average family might be able to save about one euro a month thanks to the new action. At the same time, shops might run out of these items altogether. In the markets, though, the price of these might become unaffordable. In many shops, a limit on the purchasable amount was already introduced.
Many shops had to introduce a limitation on the purchasable amount of eggs and potatoes due to the uncertainty, reports RTL.hu. The new price caps seem to have been much more of a harmful action rather than a help. Without the limits, shops could have quickly run out of these items. However, in the markets, the price caps are not enforced. Therefore, the prices could rise to the skies as we are approaching Christmas.
Possible shortages
The maximisation is not yet national practice. The franchises do not require their individual shops to introduce these limitations. However, most chains want to upkeep the undisturbed and continuous supply for people as long as possible. The problem is that due to the lowered prices, shops could experience a shortage. However, the markets have no obligations to fix their prices, so there the cost of these items might skyrocket.
The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that suppliers might choose to rather sell their products to markets instead of shops. This is because without the price caps, the profit can be higher in the markets for them too. On the one hand, farmers lose profits, on the other hand, families do not win that much. An average family can save about one euro for each every month with the new price caps. This means about four to five eggs each month more for them. However, due to the shortages, they might be forced to buy their eggs in the markets, where the prices will be a lot higher. Ultimately, the whole situation seems like a loss for everyone. Although, only time can tell whether the predictions will become reality or not.
Official information is scarce, but the union of egg producers said that if the incomes do not cover their expenses, then shortages can be expected in the medium term. For now, the price in the shops and at the markets remain equal, but it might not last long. Managers already stated that they do not know when the next supply of eggs or potatoes will come. This whole situation is not helped by the poor harvests this year.
Needless to say, life was very different back then in ’50s Hungary than it is now. However, many believe that the world is going backward again with the current economic crisis and general social unrest. If you also get the blues reading the depressing news, we thought to cheer you up with this rare vintage photo gallery from ’50s Hungary. While you are here, you can also learn what everyday life was like in this distant weathered era.
The post-WWII era brought dark ages to Hungary as the country fell under the occupation of the Soviet army. After the immense destruction of the previous decades, the government set the reconstruction of the war-torn country as its main priority, or at least that was their propaganda. In parallel to this faux noble idea, the party in power set off to completely restructure the national democracy as part of the communist takeover.
The new political system meant significant changes regarding all aspects of life, which negatively affected both families and individuals. The socialists pledged to abolish all social inequalities and unfairness, however, in the process of doing so they disregarded deep-rooted traditions and customs. The political pressure had a disruptive effect on all kinds of human relations, causing deviant behaviour and all types of neurosis later on. In regard to the dietary customs of the society, Hungary saw a slight improvement compared to pre-war levels. Even though, certain goods were still rationed (bread and meat tickets were reintroduced in ’51), most of the workers had access to cheap, cooked meals at least once a day, at the work canteens. It was the decade when school meal programmes started to become more widespread all over the country which lifted a huge burden off working parents’ shoulders.
Those who filled important positions or belonged to the upper class (the bourgeois and the landed gentry) in the past regime before ’45 either fled the country or took on ordinary jobs unless they were not already imprisoned. Deprivatisation was also a characteristic concept of these weathered ages. The peasantry, in order to avoid the government’s pressure, moved to the big cities even if it meant leaving their lands behind. To ensure social equality, authorities were rather focusing on depriving the affluent of their wealth instead of lifting up the poor. Nevertheless, the government made sure to provide jobs for everyone while keeping the wages low, except in the case of the political elite who were given spacious homes and high-quality food articles. The Rákosi era, followed by Imre Nagy’s overtaking, loudly proclaimed the success story of the new regime. Unemployment was nearly non-existent while health care became free for virtually all members of society and so did education as well as nursery and kindergarten services. More and more people from the villages joined the urban working class, along with women from previously single-income households.
As a result of the increased workforce, modernisation accelerated in an unparalleled fashion. The number of powered villages grew, and radio programmes and cinemas became available to a larger crowd. Although personal vehicles were still a rare sight in the country, motorcycles had gotten popular among the working youth who were finally able to afford them. Hungarian healthcare underwent a considerable improvement with the arrival of new medicine and especially the introduction of antibiotics. Doctors treated fewer and fewer syphilis and pulmonary patients. The rate of child mortality also decreased significantly while the average life expectancy rose. At the firms as well as in transportation, commerce and offices, workers were now eligible for pensions.
The political power had been centralised and it did not refrain from using terror on an everyday basis. Private and religious schools, cinemas and book publishers were all deprivatised, and multi-party press was banned. The old worldview characterised by God-fearing, democratic and humanist approach was forcefully oppressed and strategically replaced by the beliefs of Marx and Lenin, in all institutions and workplaces. Elementary education was expanded from 4-6 to 8 grades and labourers had the opportunity to finish their studies by taking correspondence or evening courses that were previously not available. The Russian language was introduced as a compulsory school subject. In conclusion, it is fair to say that the new system’s quantitative view took a toll on the quality of education though, which was felt mostly in the case of social and art-related courses.
On a positive note, cultural projects such as theatrical and cinematographic productions, book publishing, and the music industry received considerable governmental aid, even though the not-so-secret agenda of transmitting propaganda messages to the public through these various media was always there. The most typical genre of the era was the socialist anthem that praised the party and the great Communist leaders. These anthems were sung not only at processions and former gatherings but also among friends in order to show devotion to the party and possibly avoid being reported by informers who were often unwillingly employed by intelligence.
The ’50s in Hungary are often remembered as the golden age of sport. In the ’52 Helsinki Olympics, the Hungarian team obtained 16 gold medals. The Puskás-led Golden Team was known by football fans all around the globe. However, the party propaganda also used these successes to its own advantage and increase the regime’s popularity. As for advancements, ’53 marks the year when the formerly known People’s Stadium – now Puskás Stadium -was built. Besides, the construction of the Budapest metro also began in this decade.
Despite all that, citizens were struggling in all aspects of life. Buildings and offices were left unheated in the middle of the harsh winter months due to coal shortages. People were freezing in their homes while reading the loud propaganda articles written about victorious Communist success stories. The income and consumption of Hungarians dropped by 10-15 percent between ’50 and ’53. Former Prime Minister Imre Nagy made a number of fruitful attempts to restore the old order by introducing tax releases for the peasantry, terminating the costly and unnecessary investments, and instead, reverting funds to the production of consumption goods. However, he was ousted in 1955 and Mátyás Rákosi replaced him in power. MDP (Hungarian Labour Party) ejected Rákosi from his parliamentary position on the excuse of his poor health. They believed, with these modifications, they could continue pushing forward the wheel of Socialism, however, they were in for a rude awakening. The ’56s Hungarian revolution put an early end to the first chapter of this dark era, however, freedom was still a distant mirage.
The inhabitants of a ghost house in Miskolc, Northern Hungary, disappeared from one moment to the next, even the bacon was left in the pantry. What happened in the apartment building is a mystery.
The residents of a tenement house in Miskolc have disappeared in a spooky way, as if they had just run down to the corner shop, the Facebook page of the Városi Gorillák (Urban Gorillas) community has spotted. The society searches abandoned buildings, and this is how they found the “hounted house”, rtl.hu writes.
The house still has books on the shelves and bacon in the pantry, as if everything was waiting for the soon-to-return residents. However, no one has lived there for years.
From the comments below the post, it appears that a teacher probably lived in this place years ago. One commenter wrote: “I used to come here as a kid for math tutoring. Even as a kid, the building was impressive. Unfortunately, the lady who lived here, I can’t remember her name, but she was very helpful”.
According to another commenter, the mysterious building is the property of Mifer Kft., and it will become an apartment hotel.
Hungary, with 91.3 percent, has the 3rd highest proportion of private home ownership in Europe, according to a survey published in Tuesday.
Owning an own home is a big step in anybody’s life but getting onto the property ladder seems to be getting increasingly hard, especially for first home buyers.
And while buying a home can be a challenge no matter where you live, the picture does vary quite drastically around the world.
They’ve taken a look at which European countries have the highest and lowest proportions of homeowners, as well as how this relates to the average property prices.
The ranks
With 96.1 percent, Romania ranks first, followed by Slovakia with 92.3 percent, the survey carried out by Compare the Market Australia found. Croatia shares third place with Hungary.
Germany, with 50.4 percent, has the lowest proportion of private home ownership.
Demand for private property is much higher in central Europe, while in western Europe there is generally more of a rental culture, the paper said.
Property and rental prices
Property prices per square meter in Hungary average 2,250 euros, putting it at the top of the region, while rental prices are also high, though Slovakia and Lithuania are ahead of Hungary in this regard.
Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus also have lower average prices per square meter than Hungary.
In Hungary a flat costs an average of 453 euros to rent, the survey says. Average rents in Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia are also lower than in Hungary.
Record-high rental prices in Budapest will continue to rise this summer. In the upcoming months, tenants will have to dig deep into their wallet if they want to rent an apartment in the Hungarian capital. Here are the details!
Home furnishings, toys, office supplies and cosmetics are available at the newly opened TEDi shop in Savoya Park. The German chain plans to open new stores in Hungary, which competitors are not particularly happy about.
Since 2004, the German non-food chain has conquered 11 countries and opened more than 2600 stores. Therefore, it is no coincidence that this year the company started to expand in Hungary as well.
The first TEDi store has recently opened in Budapest. On this occasion, the company has posted an impressive video:
This clearly shows the non-food products available in the shop, which are mostly home furnishings, toys, office supplies, cosmetics, decorations and do-it-yourself items.
The store awaits customers since the end of March in Savoya Park.
TEDi’s main competitors are the British chain Pepco and the German chains Müller and KIK. The product categories offered are broadly similar. The only question is which chain will attract Hungarian customers the most. The Pepco Group currently has around 216 stores in Hungary. Last year, the chain had a turnover of EUR 210,4 million, of which EUR 21,6 million was recorded after-tax. KIK, another German company, has more than 100 stores in Hungary. In their case, they had revenues of more than EUR 51,2 million in 2020, of which they had a profit of EUR 491,000 after-tax.
Low prices are certainly among the most important factors in the domestic market.
In addition to the low prices as the main incentives, second-hand stores also attract environmentally conscious customers as well as those who hunt for special ‘luxury’ clothing items which an average Hungarian can only afford pre-owned.
Some 64 percent said they believed their families’ finances improved since Orbán was prime minister, while 26 percent said their finances had worsened.
76 percent of Hungarians said they expected a deterioration or no change in their families’ financial circumstances if the opposition won the elections.
The Hungarian government has worked over the past eleven years to provide security to elderly Hungarians, a human resources ministry official said at an event marking the International Day of Older Persons on Friday.
The coronavirus pandemic hit the elderly extremely hard, and put their security at even bigger risk, he said.
That is why they were first in line to get the vaccine, while the government banned visitors from elderly care homes and dedicated a time frame each day for the elderly to shop for groceries, he said.
Lászlo Horváth, the spokesman of ruling Fidesz, said in a video message on Facebook that the party
“has worked to make life easier also for the elderly” since 2010, noting cutting household utility prices and putting Hungary’s economy on a growth track as measures benefitting the elderly.
“The elderly do not want premiums and vouchers, but expect the government to provide them with adequate living conditions,” she said. Schmuck said “the Fidesz government’s policy towards the elderly is that there exists no such policy.”
The Hungarian government is committed to “making the country’s child protection system family-oriented”, a state secretary of the human resources ministry told a conference on foster parenting in Budapest held under the auspices of Hungary’s Council of Europe presidency.
In his address, Attila Fülöp said that 23,000 Hungarian children were currently receiving child protection services, noting that 70 percent of them were living with foster parents. “This ratio has never been this high and the goal is to further increase it,” he said.
Fulop said that the government’s aims were to help those who chose foster parenting as a career, and to “recruit helpers” to work with child protection professionals. He noted that foster parenting was recognised as employment in Hungary, and referred to legal stipulations under which children under 12 must be ensured foster parents if possible. He added that 86 percent of the Hungarian children without parents are now under care of foster parents.
Concerning “helpers” to the state system, Fülöp said that the government was primarly relying on the churches, noting that 75 percent of Hungary’s specialised child protection services were offered by religious organisations.
In a letter to the conference, Human Resources Minister Miklós Kásler said that “taking care of needy children is among our most ancient Hungarian and Christian traditions”.
“It is our task to provide human answers to the challenges of the current times and create an opportunity for a decent and full family life; foster parenting is not work but service and commitment,” Kásler said.
Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou, the head of CoE’s committee for children’s rights, who attended the conference online, said that 1.5 million children in the organisation’s 47 member states were living in some form of “alternative” care. She said that family and community care was much better suited to the needs of children than being raised in institutions. She added that the CoE supported that children’s homes should be closed.
Year-on-year wage growth in Hungary slowed to 3.5 percent in June from 8.2 percent in the previous month, falling under the rate of inflation, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Tuesday.
The data for businesses and institutions with at least five people on payroll show the average gross monthly wage for full-time employees stood at 436,300 forints (EUR 1,300). The average net wage was 290,200 forints (EUR 864).
The gross median wage was 350,000 forints.
Calculating with a 5.3 percent CPI, real wages declined by 1.7 percent in June.
Excluding the 85,800 Hungarians working full time in fostered work programmes — who earned on average a gross 84,500 forints in June — the average gross monthly wage in Hungary was 447,300 forints (1333 euros).
The average gross wage in the business sector, which includes state-owned companies, rose by 6.3 percent to 446,400 forints, excluding fostered workers. The average gross wage in the public sector, excluding fostered workers, fell by 4.2 percent to 456,800 forints, showing the impact of the healthcare workers’ bonus in the base period.
People working in the ICT sector were the highest earners in June, getting gross monthly 720,900 forints on average.
People working in commercial accommodations and catering earned the least, 264,300 forints.
A broader set of data covering all full-time employees, not only the ones at employers with a payroll of five or more, show the average gross wage stood at 423,600 forints and the average net wage at 281,700 forints in June. The median gross wage was 335,800 forints.
Excluding fostered workers, full-timers earned a gross monthly 433,500 forints and net 288,300 forints (859 euros).
Data for January-June show men earned, on average, 19.4 percent more than women during the period.
As we wrote before, A new government decree allowing workers from non-neighbouring countries to work in Hungary temporarily is about to come into effect. Details HERE.
About 46 percent of employed Hungarians regularly get non-wage compensation, according to an online survey conducted by voucher company Magyar Utalvány.
The survey showed 10 percent got no fringe benefits this year because of the pandemic and the recession.
Two-thirds of those surveyed were dissatisfied with the scale of their non-wage compensation. More than half agreed that fringe benefits increase workplace loyalty and boost motivation to work.
More than 1,200 people participated in the survey, half men and half women.
Around 44 percent worked in the public sector and 39 percent in the private sector, while 17 percent worked for non-profits.
Magyar Utalvány issues the National Voucher, which employers may award to staff and their immediate family, with tax preferences, once a year to a value up to 10 percent of the minimum wage.
The number of smokers among women has increased in Hungary, as did the number of those diagnosed with lung cancer, the Hungarian Respiratory Society warned on Monday, marking World No Tobacco Day.
According to Helló Magyar, between 2014 and 2019, the proportion of smoking women had gone up to 23,9 percent from 22,3 percent, the organisation said in a statement. Meanwhile, the number of smoking men dropped to 30 percent from 36,08 since 2009, the society said.
The rise is alarming, and is connected to an increase in lung cancer diagnoses, the statement said.
During 2010-2016, the number of new lung cancer cases among smoking women had increased by close to 40 percent, while the figure among smoking men was only 15 percent.
Meanwhile, the society welcomed Hungary’s improving lung cancer five-year survival rate of 17-18 percent, which puts the country among the mid-fielders among EU countries.
“This result could exceed 60 percent with early detection of the disease and appropriate therapy, significantly reducing the number of 6,000 lung cancer related deaths per year,” it said.
Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared May 31 as World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to raise attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable deaths it causes.
Back in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first hit Hungary, many things were expected to die down or become cheaper, but in a lot of cases, what happened is quite the opposite. Many people have said that due to the uncertainties brought by the pandemic and the restrictions, the price of real estates will fall or stabilise, but after almost an entire year of living with restrictions, we can certainly say that this did not happen.
Otthon Centrum, one of the leading companies in the Hungarian real estate market, reported to MTI that the price per m2 of used family, semi-detached, and terraced houses in municipalities has increased by a striking 18.7% in the first four months of 2021, compared to the same period last year.
It becomes evident from the company’s statistics that brick-built apartments are more coveted than towerblock apartments, as the former’s price per m2 has increased by 11.4% and the latter’s has only done so by 9.3%.
24 also reported about this and, according to the data, the most expensive Hungarian municipality in terms of house prices per m2 is Sopron.
The historical city in the north-western area of Hungary, located right next to the Austrian border, has become increasingly popular over the past decade due to the closeness of the border and the possibility of working in Austria for higher wages than in Hungary. This caused demand to increase significantly and has made house prices skyrocket.
The statement said that the average price per m2 of pre-owned real estate was around HUF 286,000 (€817). In contrast, in Sopron, these prices hit over HUF 440,000 (€1,255).
