Economy
Hungary EcoMin sees sharks in bloody waters, no euro adoption before 2020
Matolcsy said the government has no regrets that talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) broke off last year. “We are grateful for the help of international organisations but now we have to finance ourselves from the market and we need no outside help anymore," he added.
Answering another question the minister said Hungary is not alone in this regard.
“We are swimming together with countries that do not have IMF help; and this goes for most of Europe. Until now we have been swimming along such casualties as Ukraine and Romania, but it was not good. Everyone knows that the sharks, that is the speculators, are gathering when they smell blood," Matolcsy said.The minister said the government wanted no further austerity measures that would have required more sacrifices from the people therefore it asked a few profitable sectors to contribute to the budget.
Asked about the discriminatory nature of the sectoral taxes, Matolcsy responded that these were not levied according to nationality rather than on a size-basis. “If I were a bank, I wouldn’t like to pay a special tax either," he said.
Matolcsy emphasised that the government will carry out comprehensive structural reforms that will help push the country’s debt to 64% of GDP from the current 82%.
Matolcsy also said the credit rating agencies were “behaving oddly", adding that they have lost their credibility due to the global financial crisis. “The credit rating agencies do not recognise our unorthodox economic policy measures, because they are on the side of banks and pension funds. This is a mistake. But money markets believe them no more," the minister said.
To underpin his view he reminded that even if a credit rating agency publishes a negative opinion on Hungary, the forint and the stock market are left unfazed by it.
Answering another question the minister said Hungary is not alone in this regard.
“We are swimming together with countries that do not have IMF help; and this goes for most of Europe. Until now we have been swimming along such casualties as Ukraine and Romania, but it was not good. Everyone knows that the sharks, that is the speculators, are gathering when they smell blood," Matolcsy said.The minister said the government wanted no further austerity measures that would have required more sacrifices from the people therefore it asked a few profitable sectors to contribute to the budget.
Asked about the discriminatory nature of the sectoral taxes, Matolcsy responded that these were not levied according to nationality rather than on a size-basis. “If I were a bank, I wouldn’t like to pay a special tax either," he said.
Matolcsy emphasised that the government will carry out comprehensive structural reforms that will help push the country’s debt to 64% of GDP from the current 82%.
Matolcsy also said the credit rating agencies were “behaving oddly", adding that they have lost their credibility due to the global financial crisis. “The credit rating agencies do not recognise our unorthodox economic policy measures, because they are on the side of banks and pension funds. This is a mistake. But money markets believe them no more," the minister said.
To underpin his view he reminded that even if a credit rating agency publishes a negative opinion on Hungary, the forint and the stock market are left unfazed by it.
