Socialists Call On Hungary’s Central Bank To Stop “Outrageous Spending”
- 18 Apr 2014 9:00 AM
The opposition Socialists on Thursday called on the governor of the National Bank of Hungary to drop an “outrageous” policy of spending over a hundred billion forints on purchasing new properties, as well as a Guarneri violin or a painting by Brueghel. Socialist lawmaker István Józsa referred to a report by news website Index on Wednesday, and said that the central bank was spending 90 billion forints (EUR 292m) “on a mysterious property programme” and nearly 30 billion on buying artwork.
He said that Matolcsy was acting upon instructions from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, “whose cronies may need a couple of billion forints” and “Matolcsy reaches into public coffers and pays up”.
Józsa also insisted that the 130-140 billion forints now being spent on properties and artwork would be enough to resolve the problem of Hungary’s troubled forex borrowers.
The central bank announced on Wednesday that it would file a criminal complaint against Index.hu for its report on the bank’s spendings. The NBH said the report contained allegations that were “false and serving to undermine public confidence.”
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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