HUNGARY
Analyst
Istvan Racz
Former Director, Central BankDatabanks
Recent Country Insights
Tisza won with an extraordinarily strong mandate
HUNGARY · Forecast · 29 Apr 2026
The opposition Tisza party, founded only two years ago, achieved a sweeping victory at the regular parliamentary election held early this month. Actually, it won the strongest mandate seen since the fall of communism in 1990. Tisza now has a comfortable two-thirds supermajority, meaning it can am...
Governor Varga did not appear to be pushing for a stronger forint at today's press conference
HUNGARY · In Brief · 28 Apr 2026
The Monetary Council held the base rate unchanged at 6.25% today. The Council discussed only the 'hold' proposal, and the vote was unanimous. This was not at all surprising; the more interesting part of the day was Governor Varga's press conference.There will likely be different interpretations o...
No change in the MNB base rate is expected from tomorrow's monthly rate-setting meeting
HUNGARY · In Brief · 27 Apr 2026
Portfolio.hu, the economic news site that regularly surveys analyst views, is saying that analysts typically do not expect a change in the MNB's 6.25% base rate at the monetary Council's monthly meeting tomorrow. They also added that the majority of the analysts they asked think that a further fo...
Orbán resigned from parliament but wants to remain president of Fidesz
HUNGARY · In Brief · 26 Apr 2026
Outgoing PM Orbán gave back his parliamentary mandate, which he obtained as No. 1 on Fidesz's party list, yesterday. This means that for the first time since 1990, Mr. Orbán will not be present as a representative in the National Assembly. Fidesz will have the right to nominate another representa...
Oil flows again through Druzhba towards Hungary; outgoing PM Orbán revoked his effective veto on the EU's €90bn loan to Ukraine
HUNGARY · In Brief · 23 Apr 2026
President Zelenskyy personally announced the other day that Ukraine had completed fixing the now infamous pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline, which had been inactive since January 27, due to a missile or drone hit coming from the Russian army. This announcement was followed by technical ...
Tisza is moving forward on all fronts
HUNGARY · In Brief · 21 Apr 2026
The war-hit pumping station of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which has been inactive since January 27, miraculously recovered just a few days after the election in Hungary. There is no connection between the two events, of course. Technical tests have reportedly started today and oil may start to flo...
All votes are counted: Tisza gained further seats over the last two days
HUNGARY · In Brief · 18 Apr 2026
Vote-counting is now over. In the end, Tisza won 141 seats in parliament (70.9%), on 53.2% of the popular vote, whereas Fidesz has 52 seats (26.1%) on 38.6% of the popular vote. Mi Hazánk kept the remaining 6 seats in the National Assembly. This means that Tisza has a comfortable two-thirds major...
Eurozone entry criteria to be met by 2030
HUNGARY · In Brief · 17 Apr 2026
Tisza's candidate for finance minister, Mr. Kármán said yesterday that the new government will aim at meeting euro introduction criteria by 2030. In short term, the new government is going to review the fiscal situation, and then propose the amendment of the 2026 budget. As part of that proposal,...
Power transfer proceeding in an orderly way so far
HUNGARY · In Brief · 16 Apr 2026
President of the Republic Tamás Sulyok received the heads of the three parties elected to the new parliament separately yesterday. Following the meetings, he announced that the new parliament may be convened first in early May, and at that meeting, he will nominate Péter Magyar for prime minister...