A shortage of labour in Hungary has not emerged because people with qualifications have moved to other countries, but because the Government has created more than 600 thousand jobs in the past few years, Zoltán Kovács said on the public service television news channel M1 on Thursday evening.

The Government Spokesperson took the view that the Hungarian economy which has been continuously growing for four years has „absorbed” the work force.

He added that measures such as the reduction of taxes and pay rises have become possible with the strengthening of the country.

Mr Kovács also highlighted: it is an elementary interest of the country to have as many skilled workers as possible and to keep qualified work force in Hungary. „An essential condition of this is that a process of closer wage integration should start compared with both the region’s and the European Union’s average”, he added.

(MTI)