Varga: Hungary economy to return to sustainable growth path this year

Like the government and international credit rating agencies, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects that Hungary’s economic growth would outpace average European Union growth, Varga said, presenting the OECD’s country survey at a press conference held jointly with Secretary-General Mathias Cormann.

Citing the survey, Varga said the OECD forecast a GDP growth rate of 2.4 percent in 2024 and 2.8 percent next year.

Hungary’s economic output is now 5 percent above pre-pandemic levels, while the EU average is 3.5 percent higher than before the pandemic, the minister said.

He said the OECD had prepared a “professional and well-founded report”, adding that its findings were in line with the government’s assessment, given that organisation was more familiar with the specifics of Hungary’s post-communist economic history.

Cormann welcomed that Hungary had brought down inflation, warning that the risks should not be underestimated and that the central bank needed to be prepared to take the right steps if external conditions required it.

As an export-oriented economy, Hungary’s focus should be on improving productivity, competitiveness and technological advancement as well as developing transport and telecommunications infrastructure, the secretary-general said.