Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has set a goal of achieving full employment in Hungary by 2018,reducing unemployment to 3% or lower by then.
Economic growth in 2015 may turn out higher than the projected 2.5%, the Prime Minister said at the economic policy forum of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry entitled “Opening of the Economic Year”.
Referring to the recently exposed scandal at the brokerage firm Buda-Cash, Mr. Orbán said that “Economic data also underpins our good mood, but when money disappears, we have no reason to be happy.” At the event held at the Budapest Congress Centre, the Prime Minister reassured everyone that the Government will do everything in its power to strengthen financial oversight and ensure that a situation like this does not occur again. “One cannot rule out the possibility that in Hungary there are other brokerage firms in a difficult situation which have broken the law,” he added.
“We have agreed on 21 items with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 90-91% are now complete and the rest ‘are in progress’,” Mr. Orbán explained. The Government will cooperate with the Chamber in the reorganisation of the vocational training system.
“In order to present economic prospects, we need a realistic assessment of the current situation and an essential prerequisite for that is knowledge on the four pillars, the four great reforms,” the Prime Minister said. “First we linked demography and the tax system – that is, families and taxation. As evidenced by the most recent demographic data, this is working well: the tax benefit for children and the retirement options for women who have worked for more than 40 years are showing positive effects.”
Apart from the already existing forms of allowances, the Prime Minister also talked about supporting home creation and the planned restructuring of the school system. The second major reform is reducing household utility costs, while the third is holding banks accountable. The combined stimulative effect of these measures on consumption can already be seen in growth rates.
As a fourth reform, Mr. Orbán identified the “work instead of benefits” programme, the idea of which has obviously made an impact on people, as – up until now – nobody had ever protested for the chance to take part in public works instead of claiming benefits.
Concerning this issue, the Prime Minister stressed that news about reductions in public works is untrue, as “More people will be employed in the public works scheme and we will spend more on public works than we have done up to now.” Mr. Orbán set a goal of achieving full employment in Hungary by 2018 and reducing unemployment to 3% or lower by then. Full employment would not be possible without the Jobs Protection Action Plan, he added.