As Standard and Poor’s lifts Hungary’s rating to just below investment grade, conservative commentators believe Hungary should persevere with its fiscal discipline, with the likelihood that two major rating institutions out of three may raise its rating to investment level before long. READ MORE
Commentators on both Right and Left call on the government to reconsider the surplus taxes on banks as the state buys an interest in retails banks and the economy grows at a 3.5 per cent rate. READ MORE
Magyar Nemzet believes that what its editors always saw as double standards in judging economic policies came to an end when Standard and Poor’s stripped the European Union of its top credit rating just before Christmas. The commentator cautions, however, against premature triumphalism, despite the first signs of recovery in Hungary.
READ MORE
Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet call in unison for the establishment of a European credit rating agency. The two biggest Hungarian dailies agree that American credit rating agencies are trying to pressurize EU countries to reach an overall agreement this week, but at the same time play an important role in the economic war between the EU and the US. READ MORE
Left wing papers call for PM Viktor Orbán and National Economy Minister György Matolcsy to resign after Moody’s downgraded Hungary to junk status. There are striking differences of interpretation, meanwhile, between the two pro-government dailies. READ MORE