Real market trends in Hungary did not justify in any way a decision by Standard and Poor's to downgrade the country's credit ratings, Peter Szijjarto, spokesman of Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday.

The downgrade was much more about the euro crisis than about Hungary, he added. Szijjarto said Orban had made it clear in an earlier interview that a speculation attack against Hungary could be expected in mid-December. "One characteristic of these speculation attacks is that they occur in the vicinity of credit rating decisions," he added.

The credit rating agency Standard and Poor's on Wednesday lowered its long- and short-term foreign- and local-currency sovereign credit ratings on Hungary to "BB plus" from "BBB minus", with a negative outlook. On November 24 Standard and Poor's said it would postpone a decision on a possible rating action on Hungary until after it reaches an agreement on financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union.

Hungary's government announced a week earlier that it would seek financial assistance from the IMF and the EU as a precautionary measure. But informal preparatory talks on a precautionary loan broke off on December 16 in connection with proposed changes to the Central Bank Act, which the IMF/EU mission said could curtail the independence of Hungary's central bank.

(MTI)