The two pillars of Hungary’s economic policy are financial stability and reforms, Minister of State at the Ministry for National Economy Zoltán Cséfalvay said at a conference.

At the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum (HBLF) the Minister of State said that stability measures, reforms and the abrogation of the excessive deficit procedure will enable Hungary to resume the “success story” of the 1990s, characterized by a small, open and export-oriented economy.

Some signs of that are already appearing as Hungary was ranked as 9th on the latest Globalization Index of Ernst&Young; Zoltán Cséfalvay stressed adding that Hungarian exports constitute a significant portion of GDP, while the share of products of high added value within total exported goods is close to 20 percent.

By introducing stability measures the Government intended to share the burdens and risks of the crisis. Among reforms he highlighted the public administration reform which aimed for economies of scale by the transformation of county and district administration; the labour market reform establishing flexible labour market regulation and institutional reforms such as the new Fiscal Council.

The already completed taxation reform assists the improvement of competitiveness by reducing taxes on incomes and increasing those on consumption, said Zoltán Cséfalvay.

The Minister of State added that general government debt has been on a downward path since 2012, central budget deficit was below 3 percent in 2012 and may be around 2.7 percent according to EU methodology. He also stressed that there will be no “election time budget” in 2014, because “this Government will preserve the achievement of a below 3 percent deficit also in the future”.

(Ministry for National Economy)