In response to a statement by Sweden’s foreign minister, on Sunday Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister György Bakondi told public television channel M1 that the Government of Hungary does not see the necessity for reintroduction of military conscription. Keeping the manpower of the reserve force at appropriate levels is important however, he stressed.
János Lázár, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office will pay a visit to Brussels on Tuesday where he will have talks with EU Commissioners and Hungarian diplomats.
The Ministry for National Economy estimates that the volume of industrial output will be 7-8 percent for the entire year of 2015, following the 7.7 percent increase in the previous year. In light of industrial sector performance data of 2014 and 2015, the Hungarian economy has been on a sustainable, balanced growth path, Deputy State Secretary for Domestic Economy Áron Márk Lenner told public news channel M1.
On Friday morning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Minister of State for Economic Diplomacy Levente Magyar said on Hungarian public television M1 that “2015 is expected to be a record year for Hungarian exports, based on figures for the first 11 months of the year”.
In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió on Friday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that a new line of defence for Europe must be established at the northern border of Greece. He also emphasised the need to amend the EU’s founding treaty.
Hungary may combine the sales of two commercial banks that the Government has acquired from foreign owners with the possibility of listing MKB on the Budapest Stock Exchange, Minister for National Economy told Bloomberg in an interview.
After talks in Budapest on Thursday with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that both leaders want a strong Europe. At their joint press conference, Mr. Orbán spoke about Hungarians working in Britain, pointing out that it is important that they should not be subject to any discrimination. At the same time he stressed that Hungary is open to all reasonable British proposals designed to put an end to abuses in the field of social benefits.
Consumer confidence has been positive for at least the past 30 months in Hungary and thus households’ propensity to spend reached levels last seen at the beginning of the 2000s, Deputy State Secretary for Priority Enterprise Relations Zoltán István Marczinkó told public news channel M1, commenting on the latest retail sales data published by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH).
On Thursday Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told public television channel M1 that the Syrian conflict and international cooperation to combat terrorism would be among the items on the agenda in the meeting between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Viktor Orbán.
Preliminary data show that the central sub system of the state budget accumulated a deficit of HUF 1218.6bn for the year 2015. Within that, the central state budget and Social Security Funds posted deficits of 1195.9bn HUF and HUF 24.9bn, respectively, while Extra Budgetary State Funds registered a surplus of HUF 2.2bn. In the final month of the year, the deficit of the central sub system was HUF 247.8bn.