GKI projects slowing growth, gradual upgrades in 2015

Budapest, March 23 (MTI) – Hungarian economic think-tank GKI has kept its economic growth forecast for the country unchanged at 2 percent in 2015.

It expects ratings agencies to continue to gradually upgrade Hungary’s sovereign debt rating in its latest monthly projection, GKI head Andras Vertes said on Monday.

As regards Tuesday’s rate-setting meeting of the National Bank of Hungary’s Monetary Council, Vertes said the bank was likely to launch another series of interest rate cuts, reducing the base rate by 30-50 basis points from its current level of 2.1 percent.

Consumption is likely to grow faster in 2015 due to the one-off effect of the conversion of foreign currency loans into forint, but economic growth will slow down to around 2 percent as investments stagnate, Vertes said, adding that this trend could continue in 2016.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters