Hungary’s recent dollar-based bond issue has proven that the country is capable of standing on its own feet, without the assistance of the International Monetary Fund, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on public Kossuth Rádió’s morning show “180 minutes”.

The issuance is also a sign of confidence in the Hungarian economy, which investors regard as predictable, since a government bond which is oversubscribed six times cannot be called “junk” by any means, he stressed.

With regard to public debt, he said Hungary is among those five European Union member states that is able to reduce its debt continually and he once again made it clear that debt reduction must continued in order to ensure job creation and economic growth. According to the Prime Minister, the most important task for 2013 is to put the Hungarian economy back on a growing path. He noted that the European crisis had also had a negative impact on Hungarian GDP.

He said that the economy shows good results in five areas, which are public debt, the budget deficit, Hungary’s trade surplus, the current account balance, and the employment rate. The missing factor is economic growth, which has to be boosted.

In connection with the excessive deficit procedure, Viktor Orbán said that Hungary has so far been able to comply with its budget undertakings and he considers the procedure likely to be lifted this summer.

Regarding the European Union’s Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020, the Prime Minister said that over the past two years Hungary has adopted reforms which have established confidence in the country was therefore able to enforce its interests in Brussels.

The Prime Minister also commented on recent developments regarding the person in charge of education policy. He said that the on-going reorganisation of public education, vocational training and higher education is an enormous task, and so splitting the position of Secretary of State for Education into higher and public education is justified.

(Prime Minister's Office)