Economy: And then the government no longer tries to pretend that the budget is sustainable

The government passed dozens of bills, but those who waited for crisis management decisions had to be disappointed. The new university foundations are full of money, and one of the new maintainers even gets half of a stadium company; others start almost empty-handed. A salad law has also included changes to postal regulations, exemption from church and sports association debts, and transfer of property rights, compensating disabled pensioners for their illegally reduced benefits with a delay of more than two years. The state and Mol will establish a new public trust fund with a public function. The Hungarian Culture Foundation, whose five board members will soon be appointed by Miklós Kásler, will receive a significant real estate asset.

The Economic Protection Fund was addressed in a separate government decree, but only to withdraw HUF 4.9 billion for sports purposes, HUF 1.2 billion for cultural developments, and HUF 25.8 billion for church renovations. Within the framework of the railway developments, 10 billion were allocated to hunting and equestrian events, as well as to the International Eucharistic Congress.

It is already certain that the budget will be overwhelmed, not as if it has not been rewritten weekly by government decrees to the point of being untraceable, the difference now is that this time the amendment will also be tabled in parliament. With the amendment, the government can spend HUF 500 billion more. The Finance Ministry estimates that instead of the 2.9 originally entered in the budget, the general government deficit could be 7.5 percent this year. According to the PM, GDP may fall more than 4.3 percent in the first quarter of the first quarter, double-digit growth will be in the second, and the economy will perform 4.3 percent better in the year as a whole. That the last year.

It has also come to light -for the moment only- preliminary data that last year the public debt was around 2010, the deficit jumped back to the level of 2006, if we calculate it in proportion to GDP. The annual deficit of the general government sector was HUF 3,870 billion last year, of which HUF 2,276 billion was collected in the last quarter. The last quarter’s 18.1 percent deficit in year-end spreads is the highest since data began in 1999 with the current methodology.

More and more people are planning to travel to the summer, where they can go on vacation. Travel agents are feeling the growing interest, prices are going up, and they are not seeing that change. In both IBUSZ and OTP Travel, the Mediterranean region is the main destination. They also warn that no one expects to see last minute promotions this year.

But even on this long weekend, many people want to go on vacation, even if they have to. If we arrive with an employer certificate, the whole family will be waiting for the long weekend, said Lake Balaton’s owners, who cannot accept ordinary tourists according to the law.

Image of the Week: Ever Given debuts on the Suez Canal.

It is not a good idea to invite a lot of people to the big Easter banquets this year, but there are many food prices above inflation for holiday meals. In most places, you have to pay more for Easter ham this year than last year, even though the 2020 price was already preceded by a sharp increase. Eggs, on the other hand, are not much more expensive.

We modeled the Easter consumption of a family of four: 2.4 kilos of ham, 60 eggs (including those necessary for baking) and four chocolate bunnies coming out of HUF 9728-12688, and at that time we did not have drinks, gifts or horseradish that comes with the ham.

Petr Kellner, the richest Czech, known in Hungary as the owner of Telenor, was killed in a helicopter crash in Alaska. Jan Novotný, deputy editor-in-chief of the Czech daily E15, presented us with our question: the incarnation ”.

The PPF Group, which was 99.93 percent owned by Kellner and through which Telenor also owned it, issued a statement saying that the founder’s death will not affect the group’s day-to-day operations, they will continue to invest and follow the company’s vision.

The government ordered protective equipment, respirators and vaccines from two companies worth more than 100 billion HUF. There is no connection between the two companies, Fourcardinal Consultant and Danubia Pharma, based on the current network of companies, but if we look at their past, we see that the people in the network behind the two companies used to be very close, making a number of agreements. sets together.

Furthermore, not only Hungarian companies, but also various offshore interests played a role in the company network at the same time, especially in the period from 2007 to 2013.

The Uzbek-Hungarian Potato Research Center was established – it was such surreal news that it was worth investigating, but what could be behind it. It is quite certain that it is very important for Uzbeks to start something with potato production: the country cannot keep up with the appetite of the growing population with its current technology, the price increase was 90 percent four years ago and the 42 percent last. year. And the Hungarian government calculates that if we already have the knowledge, it is worth sharing, so the Central Asian market will be more open to Hungarian companies.

Uzbekistan is also interesting because it is the only exceptional place in Central Asia with which Hungary’s foreign trade relations are clearly growing, and our second most important foreign trade partner behind Kazakhstan in that region. But when Hungarian government delegations boast that they have found huge expansion opportunities for Hungarian companies in Central Asia, they must be treated with caution: with the exception of Uzbekistan, there is not a single country where an appreciable trend can be observed.