BUDAPEST, June 26 (Reuters) – Hungary, which currently meets none of the criteria to adopt the euro, could meet these conditions by around 2030, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Friday, adding that cutting the country’s level of public debt would be the toughest task.
Former right-wing leader Viktor Orban’s pre-election spending measures pushed the budget deficit well above initial plans and pushed Hungary’s credit rating to the brink of a cut below investment-grade level, although rating agencies said its euro entry efforts would be credit positive.
Magyar ended Orban’s 16-year rule in April with a landslide election victory.
• Magyar welcomed Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis for talks in Budapest on Friday.
• Pierrakakis declined comment on Hungary’s euro entry timeline but said the Eurogroup would support its efforts to join the currency bloc.
• Magyar slammed Orban’s government for misleading the public about state finances at the briefing on Friday.
• Hungarian Finance Minister Andras Karman told reporters he would inform the government about a review of public finances at a cabinet meeting at the weekend.
• He said this review would form the basis of an overhauled 2026 budget to be submitted to parliament by the end of August.
• Magyar said earlier that the deficit this year could come in at 6.8% of economic output, far above initial plans for a 5% shortfall and more than double the 3% level needed to adopt the common currency.
• Magyar’s pro-European Union pivot and sweeping anti-graft reforms to help secure the release of frozen EU funds have triggered a rally in Hungarian financial markets.
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(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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