Economy

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.

The output of Hungary's construction sector rose by an annual 29.0 percent in December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Tuesday.

Hungarian economic output grew by an annual 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter, bringing full-year growth to 7.1 percent, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said in a first reading of data on Tuesday.

Hungarian industrial output in December grew by an annual 5.8 percent, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Friday.