Opposition: Hungarian government is causing inflation, not sanctions
Hungary’s singularly high inflation is the result of government policies rather than EU sanctions against Russia, the deputy leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said on Friday.
László Varju told a press briefing held online that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “again gave free rein” to sanctions at the EU summit in Brussels by backing the document the European Council has prepared on a new sanctions package.
He said this was the 11th time Orbán had done so, proving that “it isn’t EU sanctions against Russia that are causing Hungarian inflation; if this were the case, then he wouldn’t have voted for the ten sanctions packages so far, or indeed for the current document.”
The DK politician said food inflation was plunging in Europe, yet it was 44 percent in Hungary.
Hungary jobless rate 4 percent in February
Hungary’s jobless rate was 4 percent in February, up from 3.9 percent in the previous month, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Friday. The rate covers unemployment among people between the ages of 15 and 74.
The number of jobseekers came to 195,800, 4,000 more than a month earlier and 17,400 more than in February 2022. The employment rate for the 15-74 age group reached 64.1 percent in February, down from 64.3 percent in January. In absolute terms, there were 4,691,100 employed in February, 7,700 fewer than in January but 26,000 more than twelve months earlier.
The number of economically active people in the age group stood at 4,886,900, an activity rate of 66.8 percent. Commenting on the data, the economic development ministry said the European Union’s average jobless rate was about 1.5 times higher than that of Hungary. Simultaneous growth in the number of jobholders and jobseekers means that hitherto unregistered workforce is becoming more active in the country, the statement said.
The government is working to protect full employment, avoid recession and push inflation into single digits by year-end through programmes like the Széchenyi Card Programme, the factory saving scheme and the Baross Gábor loan programme for companies, the statement said.
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Source: MTI