Socialists in Hungary Call for Maintaining Price Caps

  • 13 Mar 2023 6:24 AM
  • Hungary Matters
Socialists in Hungary Call for Maintaining Price Caps
The opposition Socialists call on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to review his economic policies and instead of developing battery manufacturing, to focus on knowledge-intensive industries, the deputy party leader said.

Ágnes Kunhalmi told an online press conference on Facebook that the cause of high inflation in Hungary was not the war but Orbán’s “bad economic policies”.

She cited expensive Russian gas, the weak forint, the lack of an agreement with the European Union, a 4.1% extra retail tax and neglected compensation to flood damage victims among the reasons.

She said it was a “lie” that price caps posed a huge burden on the economy and she proposed maintaining them until the government scrapped VAT on basic foods, or carried out significant wage and pension hikes.

She cited central bank governor György Matolcsy as saying that the mistakes made in the 2010s have caught up with Hungary.

Instead of using battery production as a way to “jump on the bandwagon” in electric car manufacturing, she called for focusing on knowledge-intensive industries, research and development.

Related links

Head Of Hungary’s Central Bank Sharply Criticises Recent National Economic Policy

  • How does this content make you feel?

XpatLoop Media Partner

Hungary Matters

Launched in January 2014, this newsletter published on week days covers 'everything you need to know about what’s going on in Hungary and beyond', according to its publisher the state media agency MTI.