Hungary could meet criteria for adopting euro by end of 2024

Hungary could meet the Maastricht criteria for the adoption of the euro by the end of 2024, Árpád Kovács, President of the Fiscal Council, said at the 53rd meeting of delegates of the Fejér County Chamber of Commerce and Industry, MTI reports.

In his presentation entitled "Public Finance Positions and Prospects in the World and the Hungarian Economy in Spring 2023", Kovács said that the consumer price index was 25.4 percent in February but could fall to around 3 percent by the summer of 2024, while public debt could fall well below 70 percent by the end of next year and the public deficit could be around 2.9 percent.

He stressed that Hungarian GDP is forecast to grow by around 1 percent this year and between 3.5 and 4 percent next year, while inflation is expected to fall below 10 percent by the end of the year, with a much better inflation environment expected in 2024.

The president said that Hungary is currently among the bottom one-third of the EU in terms of GDP per capita, but could be in the middle by 2029.

The adoption of the euro in Hungary has been on the agenda since the country joined the EU in 2004, but the government has not really pursued it since 2010. Central bank governor György Matolcsy has repeatedly said that he believes the EU as a whole has been worse off with the euro and that Hungary's path to catching up would be closed if it were to be adopted. Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, Gergely Gulyás has said that he believes that the introduction of the euro would create a disadvantage in terms of competition, as monetary policy would no longer be determined by the Central Bank of Hungary.