Public debt ratio lowest since 2008
August 23rd, 2019A pro-government commentator welcomes the sinking debt ratio as strengthening Hungary’s position in international relations.
In its latest report on public debt on Wednesday, the National Bank put Hungary’s sovereign debt at 68.7 per cent of GDP, more than 12 per cent down from 2008 when Hungary had to resort to a huge emergency loan from the IMF. In the National Bank’s estimate, the public debt ratio will sink below 60 per cent by 2022.
Magyar Nemzet’s Gergely Kiss points out that lower debt levels tend to bolster national sovereignty. The pro-government commentator recalls that after the former socialist-liberal coalition took a huge IMF emergency loan in 2008, Hungarian public debt soared to 81 per cent of GDP. Since then, the Orbán government has stabilized the economy and started to pay back debt, Kiss writes, adding that this is made possible by higher GDP growth and low deficit. All this, Kiss concludes, strengthens Hungary’s financial independence.
Tags: debt, economy, National Bank