Here is when Budapest’s main metro line will be fully operational again

Budapest’s metro line 3 is to be fully opened to the public on May 22, after a five-and-a-half-year renovation, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook on Tuesday.

The metro has been in operation along the whole line on weekdays since March 20, except for the Nagyvárad Square and Lehel Square stations. On weekends, it ran only on the northern stretch, with busses transporting passengers on the rest of the line, Budapest mayor Karácsony added.

Good news about Hungary’s economy

Hungary’s economy will avoid recession this year, expanding by 1.5 percent and by 4 percent in 2024, the finance ministry said in an update of the country’s Convergence Programme submitted to the European Commission. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the finance ministry said Hungary had faced “a number of economic policy challenges” since the last Convergence Programme update was submitted a year earlier because of the “perilous international environment”.

Disinflation will accelerate in the second half of the year, with inflation falling into single digits by the end of the year, the statement said. The updated programme shows GDP growth accelerating to 4 percent in 2024 and climbing over 4 percent for the rest of the forecast horizon. It shows unemployment staying below 4 percent in the coming years. The document affirms this year’s deficit target of 3.9 percent of GDP and calculates with a falling deficit in the following years. The public debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to fall to 63.9 percent by 2025, the ministry said.