Economy
Hungary will repay debt to IMF ahead of schedule - Orbán
Orbán said he asked Varga to arrange the repayment of an IMF credit taken out in 2008/2009 ahead of schedule in the summer.
“We are going to repay the IMF all the money and will stand clean before the Lord," he said.
He once again criticised the European Union, saying its institutions are unfit to find answers to the challenges the continent is facing.
“World power positions, including the weight and role of Europe have again been put into question today. A lot of people think that the remedy for that should be found within the institutions of the EU," Orbán told students on Saturday in Tusnádfürdő.
He added that over the past three years he has learned that EU institutions are unsuitable to find the appropriate responses to challenges faced by Europe.
Such responses may be found exclusively on a nation state level, he stressed.
Listing his government’s measures the PM mentioned the strategic agreements the cabinet signed with a host of international companies, and highlighted the strengthening of Hungarian national capital. As an example he said that by organising the system of savings co-operatives to go with OTP Bank the ownership of locals in the financial system is to slowly exceed 50%, also adding fuels group MOL, Hungarian Electricity Works MVM, real estate giant TriGranit, construction mammoth Közgép, aluminum producer MAL and drugs maker Richter to this list.
Orbán also said the cabinet has already decided that foreign currency loans will be phased out. With this, he added, they want to make it clear for every large capital group that in the future no one will be able to make profit in Hungary by leading people on.
He stressed that the conflicts undertaken with the EU are not for the sake of argument itself but for national interest. He reminded that as a result of a decision taken on Hungary’s telecom tax [the EU not continuing the infringement procedure] Hungary has “taken back" 185 billion forints.
As we wrote in our latest analysis on the planned “early" repayment of Hungary’s debt towards the IMF (EUR 2.2 bn) the move would reduce the state’s available fiscal reserves (EUR 7 bn, EUR 4 bn of which is in foreign currency) by nearly one third. Early repayment would lower this years debt ratio by about 2.2 percentage points, which would greatly contribute to achieving a descending debt path and meeting the debt rule.Economy Minister Mihály Varga also talked about this in a recent interview with Portfolio.hu, saying the planned repayment of the remaining tranches of an IMF credit taken out in 2008 ahead of schedule would cost about EUR 2.1 bn.
“[...] this could deliver a good message to the markets and secondly, it will save interest expenditures for the country. If this has a favourable impact on the market, an appreciation of the exchange rate will lower interest servicing too," he explained.
“We are going to repay the IMF all the money and will stand clean before the Lord," he said.
He once again criticised the European Union, saying its institutions are unfit to find answers to the challenges the continent is facing.
“World power positions, including the weight and role of Europe have again been put into question today. A lot of people think that the remedy for that should be found within the institutions of the EU," Orbán told students on Saturday in Tusnádfürdő.
He added that over the past three years he has learned that EU institutions are unsuitable to find the appropriate responses to challenges faced by Europe.
Such responses may be found exclusively on a nation state level, he stressed.
Listing his government’s measures the PM mentioned the strategic agreements the cabinet signed with a host of international companies, and highlighted the strengthening of Hungarian national capital. As an example he said that by organising the system of savings co-operatives to go with OTP Bank the ownership of locals in the financial system is to slowly exceed 50%, also adding fuels group MOL, Hungarian Electricity Works MVM, real estate giant TriGranit, construction mammoth Közgép, aluminum producer MAL and drugs maker Richter to this list.
Orbán also said the cabinet has already decided that foreign currency loans will be phased out. With this, he added, they want to make it clear for every large capital group that in the future no one will be able to make profit in Hungary by leading people on.
He stressed that the conflicts undertaken with the EU are not for the sake of argument itself but for national interest. He reminded that as a result of a decision taken on Hungary’s telecom tax [the EU not continuing the infringement procedure] Hungary has “taken back" 185 billion forints.
As we wrote in our latest analysis on the planned “early" repayment of Hungary’s debt towards the IMF (EUR 2.2 bn) the move would reduce the state’s available fiscal reserves (EUR 7 bn, EUR 4 bn of which is in foreign currency) by nearly one third. Early repayment would lower this years debt ratio by about 2.2 percentage points, which would greatly contribute to achieving a descending debt path and meeting the debt rule.Economy Minister Mihály Varga also talked about this in a recent interview with Portfolio.hu, saying the planned repayment of the remaining tranches of an IMF credit taken out in 2008 ahead of schedule would cost about EUR 2.1 bn.
“[...] this could deliver a good message to the markets and secondly, it will save interest expenditures for the country. If this has a favourable impact on the market, an appreciation of the exchange rate will lower interest servicing too," he explained.
