Economy

Hungarian central bank (NBH) rate-setters cut the base rate by 100 basis points to 9.00 percent at a regular policy meeting on Tuesday.

Hungary's jobless rate stood at 4.5 percent in January, up from 4.2 percent in December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Friday. The rate covers unemployment among people between the ages of 15 and 74.

Hungary has reduced its public debt to 73.5 percent of GDP and will keep it below the EU average, Mihaly Varga, the finance minister, said in Ghent on Friday.

Hungary's cash-flow-based budget surplus came to 54.4 billion forints (EUR 140.3m) at the end of January, the finance ministry confirmed in a detailed reading of data published on Thursday.

Hungary has a fundamental interest in forging the strongest possible cooperation with India, the foreign minister said after talks with counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi on Wednesday.

In 2023, 18,647 new dwellings were built, 9.2% fewer than a year earlier. The number of dwellings to be built under construction permits and simple declarations issued was 21,501, 39% fewer than in 2022.

Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, spoke by phone with Laziz Kudratov, Uzbekistan's minister of investment, industry and trade on Tuesday, Szijjarto said on Facebook.

Targeted European Union funding for EVs would be key to securing the bloc's green transition, the minister of national economy told a conference of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum in Budapest on Friday.

Hungary's GDP stagnated in the fourth quarter and contracted by 0.9 percent for the full year, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data on Wednesday. Adjusted for calendar year effects, GDP rose by an annual 0.4 percent in Q4. ...

Output of Hungary's construction sector in December last year dropped by an annual 4.3 percent, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.