Ministry: IMF backs Hungary EU presidency goals

The IMF supports the goals of the Hungarian European Union presidency pertaining to the EU providing more assistance in debt management to low-income, typically migrant origin countries, Varga said, according to a ministry statement.

The minister said the vulnerability of low-income countries was a problem that impacted the entire global economy. He said it was in the EU’s long-term interest that the financing burden and migration pressure on the bloc ease as the poorer countries catch up, adding that these countries should be supported in ways that allowed their difficulties to be solved locally.

Meanwhile, Varga said that in recent years Hungary’s relationship with the IMF had been placed on new foundations, and the country was now participating in the organisation’s annual meetings within a completely different framework than around 2008. He said the IMF acknowledged the “Hungarian solution” based on a work-based economy and agreed with the gradual reduction of the budget deficit and public debt.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva is in Budapest to address a meeting of the council of EU finance ministers.