LIFE GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE IN HUNGARY

According to present trends the price of petrol can be higher by HUF 10-15 and diesel oil by HUF 10-20 while agricultural prices will also go up by 15 pc, the meat market also predicts a 10 pc rise.

The inflation rate is expected to rise and the introduction of the euro is set to 2010. Experts suspect speculative manoeuvres behind the weakening of the forint, too – the first big sales have been started from London. The greatest problem is still the Hungarian budget deficit and its proportion to GDP may be higher than planned as it has been pointed out by Fitch and by Hungarian research instututes, too.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó