MNB President
What the government is planning in connection with the law on the central bank threatens its independence.
The president of the Hungarian National Bank (MNB), György Matolcsy, expressed this blunt criticism on Thursday at an event organized by the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT). He recalled that the MNB had to sack its vice-president Márton Nagy in mid-2021 because he made “serious professional errors” and displayed an unacceptable leadership style. As is well known, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán immediately brought the “fired man” into his own team as chief advisor and, following the parliamentary elections, made him economics minister, who has since then increasingly seized more power.
According to Matolcsy’s understanding, Nagy was using this position to provoke the MNB, which was extremely irritating on the part of a former colleague. None of this would be a problem in itself if it were not accompanied by the economic policy change that the MNB president considers to be completely wrong. Matolcsy once once more called for a return to the successful path that made Hungary prosper in the mid-2010s. It is important to restore and strengthen the macroeconomic balance and, in addition to promoting investments, to focus on competitiveness and, in particular, productivity.
A short time later, a sharp response from the criticized minister arrived. Márton Nagy told ATV news television that same followingnoon: “As far as personal attacks are concerned, between 2013 and 2020 my boss was called György Matolcsy. Luckily I have a different boss today!”
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