It has been proved again that the performance of the Hungarian economy exceeds international expectations, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said after his meeting with Pierre Moscovici, the European Commission’s departing Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. The Finance Minister said in its latest analysis the European Commission itself acknowledges that the Hungarian economy could continue to expand at a rate above the EU average, and by considerably upgrading its earlier projection, it has increased its estimate regarding Hungary’s GDP growth for this year to 4.4 per cent.
The European Commission’s forecast released a few days ago reveals that EU experts, too, must take into consideration the fact that, with its 5.3 per cent expansion recorded in the first quarter, the Hungarian economy is one of the EU’s most dynamically developing countries, Mr Varga highlighted.
He said that compared with its spring report, the Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs has significantly upgraded the growth rate of the Hungarian gross domestic product; by 0.7 percentage point to 4.4 per cent. This again stands in recognition of the results of Hungary’s economic policy, added the Minister who pointed out at the meeting that at this point in time the most important goal is to avoid the effects of the expected slowing down of the global economy and to protect the results achieved so far. The Commission, too, acknowledges that the Central and Eastern European region is achieving outstanding growth results compared with the average of the European Union.
The parties also reviewed the monetary and fiscal issues that are currently on the agenda between Hungary and the EU. They agreed that the fair taxation of digital multinational companies must be achieved through a comprehensive and globally accepted solution. Mr Varga said Hungary insists that Member States’ sovereignty regarding the operation of a tax identical or similar to the digital tax must not be curtailed.
(Ministry of Finance)
