In a post on his Facebook page, Viktor Orban shared parts from his speech delivered in Kotcse, revealing details of a peace budget with a focus on increasing wages and family family benefits. He wrote:
"We have an action plan. Although it has not been presented or announced yet, we haven't put it under political work yet, but we usually refer to it as a peace budget and it is already in the drawer. This is more or less the case, and if Governor Matolcsy [of the Central Bank] doesn't force us to do so, then we will not have to pull it out ahead of time."
"This peace budget or action plan is centered around boosting Hungary's economic growth to a range of 3-5 percent by 2025. We need a budget that can deliver 3-5 percent growth while maintaining financial balance, which is necessary because of the credit rating agencies and the entire financial world. This is the basis for everything, and I think we are capable of achieving this."
Next year may again see substantial wage increases
Dynamics are needed when it comes to wages. Employers and employees are engaged in very dynamic negotiations about next year's wages. The government aims to stay out of this, but it is clear that employees and trade unions will agree on a significant wage increase, and the government will endorse it. "Obviously they want to involve our money, but this is now beside the point," PM Orban noted, highlighting that a series of negotiations are taking place at the moment regarding a substantial minimum wage increase for years to come.
He pointed out that wage dynamics got underway in some areas, such as health care, and the largest teacher salary increase in Hungary's history is taking place and set to extend into 2025.
Inflation has gobbled up family benefits, huge increase is coming
PM Orban stressed the need to increase the value of family benefits, because high inflation has eroded their value. "After 2020, when troubles caused by Covid began, we could not increase subsidies at a pace to keep up with the rate of inflation, but this must be compensated now. We need to double the child tax credit by 2025, he wrote, crediting Minister Hanko for already drafting the necessary plans.
Minister Marton Nagy has done a great deal of work on launching a program for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) resembling the former Szechenyi Plan, where for every forint invested by a small business, the government will match it with another forint. So, a program aimed at including small and medium-sized businesses, not big ones, is also in place.
The implementation of such an action plan requires well-coordinated economic governance. "The more we listen to the governor of the central bank, the more we feel as if we were moving in the opposite direction, but this is only an illusion. We in fact are progressing well towards a coordinated economic governance system," PM Orban pointed out.
Drawing a comparison to German post-war economic architect Ludwig Erhard, PM Orban underlined that "we need an Erhard – who was once Gyorgy Matolcsy until he became central bank governor – who is a top minister managing both economic and budgetary tools all at once and is able to oversee the implementation of this plan of action. The person of this minister depends on the decision the government will be compelled to make in consequence of the fact that – regrettably – on March 1 the central bank governor's seat will fall vacant. It is evident that the person who will take this seat cannot be that top minister – to put it bluntly. One will be an economic top minister, while the other one will be the governor of the central bank," Prime Minister Viktor Orban's post read.
Cover photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: Facebook)
