In Washington, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga met with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to discuss cooperation options on technical issues. He also held talks with Switzerland’s Economy Minister Johann Scheideer-Ammann about the liberalization of the Swiss labour market with regard to Hungarian jobseekers, in addition to which he sought information about accounts held by Hungarians in Switzerland.

It was the first time since the Hungary’s Convergence Programme had been sent to the European Union that Mihály Varga was able to provide information about the document in person to representatives of the IMF. As the Minister for National Economy said, the IMF welcomed the fact that Hungary’s fiscal balance is “highly favourable”.

“The 2 percent general government deficit of last year was great news not only to us, but to the representatives of the IMF and the World Bank as well”, the Minister said. “We came to the agreement that consultations will be maintained and we will endeavour to utilize IMF and World Bank instruments of assistance that are also available to other countries”, the Minister stressed.  As an example, Mihály Varga mentioned that the World Bank’s immense knowledge may help in the field of pension reform or Roma strategy.

Responding to a question about a potential IMF loan agreement, Mihály Varga said that this issue was only discussed in the sense that in light of favourable fiscal balance data and the successful foreign currency bond issuance in February, “representatives of the IMF now also think that Hungary is in no need of the kind of financial assistance that they initially wanted to provide to us.” As he stressed, discussions at the meetings held at the Washington headquarters of the institution focused on details of technical cooperation rather than financial aid.

“It is clear that the country’s financing for this year has been secured, and therefore it is no use discussing the necessity of such an agreement. The only question is whether the country will require an agreement of this kind in 2014”, the Minister said. “I also reiterated that the Government still believes that an agreement on a safety net would be desirable, but issues we could not formerly settle – namely that of the banking tax – are still obstacles to finding common ground”.

Speaking about talks held with his Swiss partner, the Minister for National Economy called bilateral economic relations “excellent”. As he stated, Switzerland’s working capital investments in Hungary exceed EUR 2bn.
Economy Minister Schneider-Ammann informed his Hungarian colleague that the regulation restricting the free movement of labour from Hungary will be repealed next year.

The Hungarian Minister also raised the issue concerning information about the Swiss accounts of Hungarian citizens.  “I firmly emphasized that Hungary requests nothing that might interfere with the internal affairs of Switzerland, but we are asking to receive information about Swiss accounts which were opened in order to avoid taxation or to deposit income from illegal activities”, Mihály Varga said and asked for his Swiss colleague’s assistance and partnership.

The Minister added that he is also to meet with US Department of Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for International Finance Charles Collyns, and they will review Hungarian-American economic relations as well as current issues related to global economic processes.

At the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, the Minister also informed representatives of local Hungarian communities about Hungary’s economic situation.

(Ministry for National Economy)