According to the OECD, the Hungarian economy may grow by 2.4 percent this year. The government has set a target of 4 percent.

Starting this year, the Hungarian economy will return to a sustainable growth path, employment will be high and unemployment will remain low, Mihály Varga declared at the presentation of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) country study, which was also attended by Mathias Cormann, the organization’s secretary general.

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Despite the challenges of recent years, the performance of the Hungarian economy is currently about 5 percent higher than the pre-epidemic level. This is much higher than the EU’s average performance of 3.5 percent – pointed out Mihály Varga. As he said: the OECD expects that the Hungarian economy will return to the growth path from this year:

The organization expects growth of 2.4 percent in 2024 and 2.8 percent in 2025.

The minister charitably did not mention that the OECD’s growth forecast falls far short of the government’s own forecasts and set goals. The government’s primary economic policy goal for this year is to accelerate economic growth. Minister of National Economy Márton Nagy has talked about a growth target of around 4 percent so far, recently at the opening of the season of the chamber of industry, he expressed a shade more cautiously: he mentioned a level of 3-4 percent. What seems completely improbable after last year’s poor fourth quarter, the forecasts of analysts and international organizations hover around values ​​slightly above 2 percent.

The OECD report speaks highly of the Hungarian labor market, which proved to be resistant to the coronavirus crisis and the energy sector. The number of employed people remained around 4.7 million people in recent months, unemployment is also among the lowest in the EU comparison, the Hungarian indicator stood at 4.6 percent in January, explained the Minister of Finance. Mihály Varga emphasized that the 2024 Hungarian country study prioritizes the green transition, which is in line with the Hungarian government’s aspirations. Hungary’s clear goal is to be one of the winners of the green economic transition, and to this end, we are implementing world-leading developments in the production and storage of green energy. In this regard, the OECD emphasizes that the large number of FDI investments in the manufacturing industry also contributes significantly to the sector’s transition to green technologies, the Minister of Finance added.