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2009-12-11 00:00:00
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Hungary is under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until late 2010, Bajnai reminded, adding that the country remains under the European Union’s excessive deficit procedure. What is even more important from a political point of view is that 1.7 million people have taken out euro- or Swiss franc-denominated loans in Hungary.
Should anyone wanted to return to the irresponsibly policies of the past, the markets would take it out on the forint by devaluating it. This would boost repayments for the common people at once. Even a populist party would think twice before exposing itself to such danger," Bajnai said in the interview published on Thursday.
He did not wish to give a date for Hungary’s likely euro zone accession, but stressed the single European currency should be adopted as soon as possible. He noted, though that "there is no shortcut to the euro".
There is a reason for the Maastricht criteria and Hungary intends to meet this conditions, he added.
Still, Bajnai thinks Hungary will be able to become part of the euro zone sooner than Poland or the Czech Republic, for instance. He noted that by 2010 Hungary’s budget deficit will be the fifth-smallest within the entire European bloc.
"There is no other country in Europe that has turned around the spending side of its budget so radically as Hungary," the PM emphasised, adding that the related measures demand substantial sacrifices from everyone.
To criticism that while the government’s economic policy does improve the budget situation it also diminishes chances for recovery he replied: "Economic policy is the art of finding the least bad solution."
>He believes growth will return by the middle of next year and the country will be able to grow by 3.5-4.0% annually in the years to follow, provided the economies of Western Europe are back to normal.
Bajnai reiterated that he accepted to become Prime Minister with the sole purpose of saving the country from financial meltdown and that he would leave his post next spring."
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