He said at the opening of a plant by Unilever Magyarország in Nyírbátor, eastern Hungary, that chances were good for investments to double this year compared with 2022.

The ministry cited Szijjártó as saying that the capacity of a home care plant has been expanded with an investment of 23 billion forints (EUR 60m), creating 80 jobs.

He said recent years saw some serious challenges, with the world economy turning on its head twice.

“The whole of Europe is suffering from the war in Ukraine and the whole of Europe is paying its price, with sky-high inflation, energy prices and growing food prices,” he said.

“This is the situation despite European people having no responsibility for the war,” he added.

The negative effects are the most serious in the direct vicinity of the war, where the risk of escalation is also the most severe, he said.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that we are living in the black years of the global economy,” he said.

This is demonstrated by a 15% drop in greenfield investments in Europe last year, and “one must understand that as long as the war lasts, this uncertain economic environment, which is bad for everyone, will remain”.

Szijjártó said it was enormous success that Hungary’s economy “not only stayed on its feet in recent years but has broken a series of records”.

A triple record involving investments, employment and exports has been broken, he added.

“It is clear that investments serve as the basis for economic performance because investments create jobs and jobs offer work, and work results in economic performance,” he said.

Hungary’s exports increased by over 10% in the first third of the year and chances are good for another record to be broken, he said.

“We have achieved this … while standing our ground in very sharp international competition, because it was not only us who noticed that investments form the basis of economic performance, but everyone noticed and everyone is competing for investments,” he said.

“No matter how stable a political system is, how low taxes are, and how developed the infrastructure is, had the abilities, diligence and creativity of the workers not convinced the owners, they would certainly not have chosen this location for investment,” he added.