Orbán: Economic growth fell quite badly in the second quarter

Hungary’s economy is expected to return to a growth path in the third and fourth quarters this year, while inflation is also expected to drop, the prime minister told public radio on Friday.

The root of Hungarian inflation is war, Viktor Orbán said in his Friday morning radio interview. He added that in a non-war, non-sanctioned environment, the Hungarian economy could also show its better side. According to him, no one, with the exception of the Vatican and Hungary, takes a pro-peace stance.

There are three things to do to tackle inflation. First, protect jobs. Then bring inflation down. The price speculating multinationals must be forced not to raise prices unnecessarily. This has been fought by the government with price caps and the Competition Authority. Inflation will be in single digits by the end of the year, according to the Prime Minister.

The third thing to do is to grow. This requires a wage increase, while inflation must be brought down. To do this, it is important that the Hungarian economy can return to its pre-war path. “Economic growth fell quite badly in the second quarter,” he said. But the good news is that we’ve moved beyond that and the third quarter is noticeably better, Orbán said.

“You can see that work does not stop in the summer, in this economic climate, holidays are not affordable for some key ministers,” he said. “We want to reach a positive zero by the end of the year”, he said, referring to economic growth. When inflation gets into single digits, sometime between October and December, it doesn’t mean you can sit back, because it’s still very high.

He predicts inflation of five percent next year.

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