Economy

The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) will use all elements of its toolkit to intervene to ensure the stability of the domestic financial markets if necessary, the central bank told MTI on Tuesday.

European energy security has faced serious challenges over the recend period, which may even be exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia war, Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, told a conference on Monday.

Hungary's jobless rate was 4.2 percent in January, falling from 5 percent the same month in the previous year but up from 3.7 percent in December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Friday.

Hungary made the right decision to boost its financial reserves at the end of last year and lower its 2022 budget deficit target, Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said on Friday.

Hungary is prepared to face challenges of the global economy, and despite developments in Ukraine, "Hungary's financial stability is strong", Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said on Facebook on Thursday.

Annual wage growth in Hungary slowed to 9.7 percent in December from 10.1 percent in the previous month, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.

Hungarian central bank rate-setters raised the base rate by 50 basis points to 3.40 percent at a regular policy meeting on Tuesday. The Monetary Council also expanded the interest rate corridor by the same extent.

Although Hungary has been more successful in managing the crisis than many of its European Union peers, it has failed to "overtake" competitors "in the turn", National Bank of Hungary (NBH) governor Gyorgy Matolcsy wrote in an article published on Monday.

Hungary must remain a European growth leader in the next few years in order to regain its development potential enjoyed before the pandemic, the finance minister said at a conference of the Hungarian Chamber of Trade and Industry on Saturday.

Last year was the most successful the Hungarian economy has seen since the fall of communism, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Debrecen, eastern Hungary, welcoming the progress of the BMW plant under construction in the city.