Economy
ANALYST VIEW - Hungary seen taking surprise U-turn on c.bank FTT
There has been news this morning from local daily Magyar Nemzet that the government will bring forward amendments to the 2013 budget that will exempt the central bank (MNB) from the financial transactions tax (FTT).Peter Attard Montalto, economist at Nomura in London, said in an emailed note to clients today that the reversal is not a surprise, but happening now is a surprise.
He noted that “the IMF/EU/ECB were always going to make it a precondition of an SBA that the MNB is exempt, but the surprise is that even as recently as the start of last week PM Orban was stressing the importance of the MNB contributing like everyone else to the job creation policy (of which the MNB would have been contributing about half of the HUF250bn cost)."For Attard Montalto it looks “odd" in a political sense that the government would make this move now rather than in a larger package of SBA-related amendments.
“Pressure may well have come from the ECB and EC to such an extent (given how overt the attempted monetisation of the deficit was by the tax) that the government (which is at its core fiscally conservative if unorthodox) decided to just get it out of the way now."
He also finds it interesting that the government would fill the hole left by exempting the MNB by expenditure side cuts.
“We think this means it could be viewed as unfunded - with a budget overrun anyway, where is an additional HUF 120 bn odd of expenditure cuts going to come from, when the IMF will be forcing additional expenditure cuts on lower growth assumptions alone and then more is likely to be required for the various parts of the SBA about cleaning up expenditure and making structural reforms," Attard Montalto said.
He reminded that there have already been at least two rounds of "HUF 40 bn" line ministry expenditure cuts made for 2012 and more have been factored into 2013.
“The civil service is already slimming down and leaking staff, and morale is low. We really struggle to see where there is any additional fat that can be cut without starting to hack, more structurally, at the state," he added.
In his view, the likely outcome may be “some of the nibbling away at the (already non-existent in our view) budget reserves," and he still thinks “increasing the FTT on interbank transfers may be an easy way out too."
Before considering a revision of his deficit forecast (3.0% of GDP for 2013 vs. the cabinet’s 2.2% of GDP target) Attard Montalto wants to wait for the detailed amendments of the FTT law next week. But he said “risks would seem to be to a larger deficit given the importance of the jobs plan going ahead."
The economist sees minimal impact for markets (structurally around the FTT), saying the MNB was going to absorb the tax.
“The key distortions to BUBOR and the bond market from the FTT on banks themselves will still be there," he said though.
“We think the potential issues on distortions to the monetary transition mechanisms or to the need for offsetting 2.5pp rate hikes can be put to rest - but given the new leadership of the MNB from March we always discounted that to a large extent anyway."
Attard Montalto expects a positive market reaction in terms of risk premia to the policy move that will accelerate or ease the path towards an SBA. “That may well be an over-reaction in that the FTT on MNB was always going to be an additional hassle on top of an already fraught negotiating agenda, and the FTT itself on banks is still an issue for the IMF at least (and probably the EC as well)."
He forecasts an SBA deal by mid-October and only after a degree of market pressure is still in place.
He noted that “the IMF/EU/ECB were always going to make it a precondition of an SBA that the MNB is exempt, but the surprise is that even as recently as the start of last week PM Orban was stressing the importance of the MNB contributing like everyone else to the job creation policy (of which the MNB would have been contributing about half of the HUF250bn cost)."For Attard Montalto it looks “odd" in a political sense that the government would make this move now rather than in a larger package of SBA-related amendments.
“Pressure may well have come from the ECB and EC to such an extent (given how overt the attempted monetisation of the deficit was by the tax) that the government (which is at its core fiscally conservative if unorthodox) decided to just get it out of the way now."
He also finds it interesting that the government would fill the hole left by exempting the MNB by expenditure side cuts.
“We think this means it could be viewed as unfunded - with a budget overrun anyway, where is an additional HUF 120 bn odd of expenditure cuts going to come from, when the IMF will be forcing additional expenditure cuts on lower growth assumptions alone and then more is likely to be required for the various parts of the SBA about cleaning up expenditure and making structural reforms," Attard Montalto said.
He reminded that there have already been at least two rounds of "HUF 40 bn" line ministry expenditure cuts made for 2012 and more have been factored into 2013.
“The civil service is already slimming down and leaking staff, and morale is low. We really struggle to see where there is any additional fat that can be cut without starting to hack, more structurally, at the state," he added.
In his view, the likely outcome may be “some of the nibbling away at the (already non-existent in our view) budget reserves," and he still thinks “increasing the FTT on interbank transfers may be an easy way out too."
Before considering a revision of his deficit forecast (3.0% of GDP for 2013 vs. the cabinet’s 2.2% of GDP target) Attard Montalto wants to wait for the detailed amendments of the FTT law next week. But he said “risks would seem to be to a larger deficit given the importance of the jobs plan going ahead."
The economist sees minimal impact for markets (structurally around the FTT), saying the MNB was going to absorb the tax.
“The key distortions to BUBOR and the bond market from the FTT on banks themselves will still be there," he said though.
“We think the potential issues on distortions to the monetary transition mechanisms or to the need for offsetting 2.5pp rate hikes can be put to rest - but given the new leadership of the MNB from March we always discounted that to a large extent anyway."
Attard Montalto expects a positive market reaction in terms of risk premia to the policy move that will accelerate or ease the path towards an SBA. “That may well be an over-reaction in that the FTT on MNB was always going to be an additional hassle on top of an already fraught negotiating agenda, and the FTT itself on banks is still an issue for the IMF at least (and probably the EC as well)."
He forecasts an SBA deal by mid-October and only after a degree of market pressure is still in place.
