“The truth is that I have only been dealing with issues of the Hungarian economy for weeks,” Viktor Orban said in his radio interview on Friday. He then spoke in detail about how to develop an action plan to give the Hungarian economy new impetus.
According to Orban, concrete measures are now being outlined, with which they plan to give the Hungarian economy a huge boost. The basis of this is economic neutrality, meaning that we deal with the West and the East at the same time, which, according to him, could lead to economic growth of 3-6 percent next year.
According to him, we will not see this in the third and fourth quarters of this year, but in the first quarter of 2025, the Hungarian economy will gain tremendous momentum. Three main intervention points have been identified:
Affordable housing: They will also discuss this with Budapest, and among their plans are to build dormitories, enhance young people's access to housing, even subsidize the rental of their apartments, and support the construction of village housing through the Hungarian Village Programme. They also allow people to spend their retirement savings on home improvements, such as home renovations.
It has already been announced in recent days that money in voluntary pension funds will be allowed to be spent on housing, although details are not yet known. In addition, a document preparing a government decision was leaked, according to which a radical and unexpected shift in government housing policy could occur.
Wage increase: According to Orban, negotiations with trade unions are going well, and he believes that they will be able to agree on the minimum wage and the amount of wage increases. He does not consider an average salary of HUF 1 million to be unrealistic, although he did not say when he considers this achievable. In addition to the student loan, a workers' loan will also be provided to young workers.
Small business owners: They will help small entrepreneurs grow in size, and the working name of this plan is the Sándor Demján Programme. As part of this, capital and preferential loans will be provided to small and medium enterprises.
László Budes, Deputy State Secretary in charge of Innovation at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, announced on Tuesday that the government will launch a support program worth HUF 181 billion for Hungarian small and medium-sized businesses.
Together, these three plans will “strengthen” the Hungarian economy, and Orbán says that he will also focus on implementing them in the coming period. You can watch the video about it here:
