Bajnai insisted that the forint had weakened to above 313 against the euro early in the day on the back of a further rate cut by the central bank on Tuesday.

He said the weakening will “eat up the utility cuts” because Hungary imports a lot of its electricity, oil and natural gas. Bajnai also said that the weakening of the forint in recent weeks had increased the national debt by 400 billion forints, putting an extra burden of 100,000 forints on each family.

The weak forint especially weighs on troubled forex debtors, Bajnai said, adding that in 2010, at the end of his government, there were 60,000 people in that group, which he said was a “terribly high” number, but “fewer than the current 225,000”.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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MTI photo: Czeglédi Zsolt