Orbán: Hungary On Right Track

  • 8 Jan 2016 3:00 AM
Orbán: Hungary On Right Track
Assessing the situation in Hungary in a radio interview, PM Viktor Orbán said that based on the past five years it was clear that the country is progressing in a way that everyone can feel that “steps are being taken in a forward direction from year to year”. This year will follow suit, he said, citing government measures such as a tax cut, a hike in the minimum wage and the homebuilding scheme for awarding subsidies to families.

Concerning the latter, he said further steps need to be taken, including measures to expand public employment schemes, and these measures are currently being prepared.

Orbán said it is not possible to create a home-building programme that extends the same possibilities to everyone at the same time since not all families are in the same situation. He added that an incremental approach would ensure that eventually everyone has the chance to make advances.

The exclusion of the state from a capital raise in FHB Bank was an “unfriendly, even hostile step, a mistake the bank must correct”, the prime minister said.

The state’s stake in FHB Bank “must not be reduced”, Orbán added. FHB’s board raised capital in the bank at the end of December, acting on a mandate from shareholders delivered days earlier.

However, existing shareholders had no pre-emption rights for the newly issued shares under a resolution approved more than a year and a half before.

The state held 7.32 percent of FHB’s shares before the capital raise. Late on Thursday, FHB Bank said its board decided to offer newly issued shares to the National Asset Management Company (MNV) in a separate private placement.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu - Visit Hungary Matters to sign-up for MTI’s twice-daily newsletter.

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