Orbán: There is life in the Hungarian economy without EU funds
At the event, Viktor Orbán spoke about "three pitfalls for businesses", which are credit, energy prices and consumption. On the second, the Prime Minister said that energy prices are settled at the household level, but this is also a burden for entrepreneurs, as one is cross-subsidised by the other. Orbán said that this is not right, but it should not be dealt with by raising prices for the population. The Prime Minister announced that
THE GOVERNMENT DECIDED AT ITS MEETING ON WEDNESDAY TO IMPLEMENT A €10 CUT IN BUSINESS ENERGY PRICES.
The Prime Minister did not discuss the details of the measure, but indicated that further price reductions would be introduced. According to Világgazdaság, the details will be known soon, and preliminary guesses are that the unit price of industrial electricity could fall by this much.
The Prime Minister's announcement came after Portfolio reported in late October that in the first half of this year Hungary had by far the highest business electricity prices in the medium and large consumer categories, and as we pointed out, the distortion caused by the household overheads reduction also played a role in this, and the Prime Minister also spoke about cross-subsidisation. The €10 reduction may not seem significant at first glance, given the fluctuating wholesale electricity price on HUPX the next day of around €100-120/MWh, but it could still help the affected group.
He added that the government alone cannot avoid the pitfall of credit, although they are trying to move towards lowering interest rates by "methods that touch on the central bank's authority", but this does not change the fact that interest rate setting in Hungary is part of monetary policy and is the responsibility of the central bank.
The Prime Minister also said that the fact that 2023 has been "averted," that growth will visibly return in 2024, and that "not a single penny" of EU funding has been received by Hungary in the meantime, shows that it is possible to organise economic life in such a way that growth is built only on own resources or on market-based resources, with or without the financial transfers that are common in Europe.
This does not mean, he continued, that the "few billion" that Europe owes Hungary will not be collected, but the Hungarian economy must have confidence.
He said that the private success of Hungarian entrepreneurs is a prerequisite for the country's public success, and therefore the government is not jealous of entrepreneurs' capital, but on the contrary, it wishes all entrepreneurs even greater success, even greater business profits and even more capital.
We have a government that believes that the tide lifts all boats,
he said.
The Prime Minister also pointed out that while entrepreneurs are motivated by profit and expect private benefits from business transactions - and "that's right, it's called the market and private property" - the motivation of politics is to make the economy work for the benefit of the nation. This is true even if it is the same issue, he said, citing the example of the reacquisition of Budapest Airport, which he said is a business issue for the entrepreneur and a national economic issue for the government.
A kormányfő négy pontban foglalta össze, hogy a vállalkozó magánérdekei, magánhasznai és üzleti ügyei milyen módon járulnak hozzá a közérdekhez.
He summarised in four points how the private interests, private benefits and business affairs of the entrepreneur contribute to the public interest. The most important contribution, he said, is that entrepreneurs give people jobs. In addition, entrepreneurs pay taxes, contribute to common expenses, their capital can stabilize the Hungarian economy and the fourth important contribution is that if Hungarian entrepreneurs did not run businesses, foreigners would do so and the profits would leave the country.
He warned that the myth that money has no scent should not be believed. "The owner does," he said, adding that it therefore makes a difference whose hands the money, the capital, is in.
He recalled that he had learned in 2008-2009 that as soon as banks in Europe started to dry up, foreign banks in Hungary immediately started to repatriate their funds to finance their companies domestically. This led us to the conclusion that 50% of the Hungarian banking system should always be in national hands, because we will not be to avert crises like this one.
The Prime Minister recalled the figure of Sándor Demján, who died five years ago, with whom he and his colleagues devised the Széchenyi Card. He said that he had learned two things from the great entrepreneur: firstly, that there can be no Hungarian success without national self-respect. Sándor Demján also showed that there is such a thing as left-wing patriotism, with which the right can also find cooperation. The idea of a policy of opening up to the East actually originated with Sándor Demján, Orbán said, recalling that they travelled to China together in 2009 to make contact already when Fidesz was in opposition.
Cover photo: EU
