Matolcsy outlines 2020s challenges

The government can turn a blind eye to deficit and public debt targets for a couple of years but these targets must be restored from 2022, Gyorgy Matolcsy, the governor of Hungary's central bank, has said. "Hungary has financial resources from the [European Union], the NBH, the banking system, and the savings of households and businesses that are unmatched in the country's economic history," the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) governor said in an article published by Novekedes.hu on Monday. These resources will tide the country over for a while, but in the longer term the "temptation" to veer away from the proven recipe of "balance and growth" must be resisted, he added. Preserving social cooperation and political stability is the "most important" challenge at hand, he said. But a strategy for achieving convergence with the rest of the European Union is also needed while maintaining fiscal discipline, he added.