DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Hungary flags further possible delay in access to EU funds -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BUDAPEST, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Hungary's European Union funds negotiator on Monday flagged a further possible delay in access to billions of euros of recovery money, saying ironing out remaining issues with Brussels over democratic reforms could last until the summer. Hungary can receive some 5.8 billion euros ($6.2 billion) in free grants and a further 9.6 billion euros in cheap loans from the EU, but the bloc has suspended any payments until Budapest's nationalist government implements reforms to improve judicial independence and tackle corruption. Tibor Navracsics, the minister in charge of funding talks with the EU, told the business daily Vilaggazdasag that Hungary's parliament could pass the next tranche of judicial reforms in March following talks with EU officials. "Parliament has until March to pass legislation on judicial independence. When asked about media reports on a further delay in access to EU funds until the second half of the year, the minister said he expected all outstanding issues with the EU Commission to be resolved by the summer, later than a previously-flagged April deadline.

☆ China's top diplomat urges end to hostilities ahead of Moscow visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In a Facebook video during a meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Wang said the world was afflicted by disorder and wars. Despite being a member of both NATO and the European Union, Hungary has maintained closer ties to Moscow than other members of those groups. Orban, who has worked to build closer business ties with China, hosted Wang at a private dinner on Sunday, news agency MTI reported. Wang reaffirmed Beijing's commitment to closer economic ties, including via China's vast Belt and Road Initiative. ($1 = 0.9368 euro)Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Alan Charlish; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Frank Jack DanielOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bank of England's Mann doubles down on backing for rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Gergely Szakacs | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

After hiking interest rates to 4% last week, the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) signalled it was close to pausing a run of increases which began in December 2021. Mann, consistently the most hawkish member of the MPC, said the risk of under-tightening policy far outweighed the alternative. "In my view, a tighten-stop-tighten-loosen policy boogie looks too much like fine-tuning to be good monetary policy. "From a risk-management point of view, monetary policy has to lean against these upside biases since wage and price inflation are still so high," she said. At the other end of the MPC spectrum, Dhingra and Tenreyro say over-tightening risked sending Britain's economy into an unnecessarily severe downturn, with the full force of the BoE's rate hikes yet to feed through.

The EU froze funds earmarked for Hungary and Poland over their nationalist governments' track record of undercutting liberal democratic rules. Portugal had disbursed 1.4 billion euros, or 8.5% of the total recovery funds assigned to it, to project promoters by the end of 2022. Romania and Portugal are the two countries pushing hardest to extend the 2026 deadline and Spain and other Eastern European countries are supporting their demands, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said. Some countries are devising workarounds for projects that are particularly important and look like they are unlikely to meet the deadline, said a source. This would imply budgeting and allocating funds before the projects have been commissioned in order to meet the 2026 deadline, the person said.

The Romanian central bank said slower economic growth and cheaper energy would help bring inflation down to single digits this year from over 16% now, earlier than previously forecast. "So the main question is when inflation in the region will fall enough that central banks will be willing to start normalising monetary conditions." Inflation is still expected to rise in early 2023 in some central European countries, based on central bank forecasts, before returning to single-digit territory by year-end. "This will help to improve external positions and lower inflation pressures in Central and Eastern Europe." "Given the dovish bias around the growth-inflation trade-off at Poland's central bank, we think the risk of premature policy easing is greatest there."

While Budapest and Warsaw are haggling with the bloc over rule-of-law strings attached to billions worth of pandemic recovery funds, Romania has already drawn down over 6 billion euros in grants and cheap loans. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has said the government aims to tap more than 10 billion euros a year, equivalent to about 4% of GDP, of about 90 billion euros of EU funding available to Bucharest through to 2027. RESHORINGCompanies reshoring from Russia and Ukraine to nearby low-cost manufacturing hubs partially helped push foreign direct investment to 9.39 billion euros in January-October, the largest 10-month figure since Romania joined the EU. "We are optimistic that investment will rise in coming years, also encouraged by EU funds," said Alex Milcev, head of Tax and Legal at E&Y Romania. And relations with the EU are not always smooth: in December, Austrian opposition over unauthorised immigration kept Romania out of Europe's borderless Schengen area.

Off-budget spending, where the cost of activities deemed to have special characteristics is not included in the official budget, is widely used across the world. In Poland, it was initially deployed for spending to weather the pandemic but now encompasses a surge in military and other expenditures. "Budget funds are becoming less and less transparent," Supreme Audit Office President Marian Banas told Reuters. Importantly, they note that the off-budget spending still gets captured under European accounting rules. In recent years, Poland's off-budget spending has gone from insubstantial amounts to several percentage points' worth of GDP, based on spending tracked by economists and rating agencies.

From almost nothing five years ago, the institutional residential property market has grown to the point where investors say housing is starting to challenge office buildings as a focus for their cash. And higher yields and scope for growth are spurring new projects, market players say. "We are currently surprised ourselves by the speed of the change and how the market is changing," he told Reuters. "Many institutional investors are looking to gain the first mover advantage and moving in," Wysokińska-Kuzdra told Reuters. The war in Ukraine has also created uncertainty, so that some investors are focused only on finishing current projects.

☆ Four leaders sign agreement to bring green Azeri energy to Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Expert Analysis | Reuters Professional | Calls Grow For Companies To Disclose Impacts On Nature In Bid To Plug Finance Gap | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BUCHAREST, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed an agreement on Saturday on an underwater electric cable under the Black Sea to carry green Azeri energy to Europe. "Given the current security context marked by the military aggression against Ukraine we need to cooperate better and show more solidarity to mitigate common challenges," Romanian President Klaus Iohannis told the meeting, also attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Luiza Ilie, Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] Drivers wait for fuel at a gas station of Hungarian oil company MOL Group in Budapest, Hungary, December 5, 2022. MOL, Hungary's main oil and gas group, has said the price cap was unsustainable as major players stopped importing fuel due to low prices, aggravating the shortage. "In the past days, the oil sanctions of Brussels took effect and what we had been afraid of, has actually happened. From now on there are sanctions prices on petrol across entire Europe," Orban said on Facebook, adding the government will "take away the extra profits generated by this" and redirect them to the state budget. At 1218 GMT, its shares traded 1.8% lower, reversing earlier gains of around 3% after the fuel price cap was ditched overnight.

☆ Hungary still opposed to "job killing" global minimum tax, Orban says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BUDAPEST, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Hungary remains opposed to a global minimum corporate tax rate, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio on Friday, citing concern over jobs in the central European country, which has used its low-tax regime to attract investment. Hungary has used its 9% corporate tax rate and generous government subsidies to attract major investments by German carmakers and Asian battery manufacturers to bolster its export-driven economy. "This is a job killing tax hike, which, if implemented with Hungary's approval, would wipe out tens of thousands of jobs," Orban said. "The tax issue is not a global one, it falls under national jurisdiction." Orban reiterated that Hungary opposed joint EU borrowing to help Ukraine but said Budapest would provide funding on a bilateral basis.

☆ Hungary cenbank leaves base rate steady at 13%, as expected
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Gergely Szakacs | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies Base rate remains at 13%, quick deposit at 18%Follows government move to cap bank deposit ratesOne might ask what representative rate is in Hungary -analystBUDAPEST, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) left its base rate unchanged at 13% (HUINT=ECI) on Tuesday, as expected, with inflation on track to scale a 26-year-high in 2023 and exceeding the bank's 2% to 4% policy target range even a year later. read moreAt 1301 GMT, the forint was trading at 408 per euro, unchanged from levels before the announcement. Economists at brokerage Erste Investment said Monday's government move could channel funds from institutional investors and wealthy private clients towards government bonds. "The measure can be slightly positive for OTP (OTPB.BU), however this step impairs the monetary transmission of the central bank," the analysts said. Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Krisztina Than; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"We need all channels of monetary transmission, and especially the exchange rate channel, to curb inflation," Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag told an online briefing. On Monday, however, the government capped deposit rates for certain large institutional and private investors at the three-month Treasury bill yield until March, which some analysts said would harm the efficiency of monetary transmission. read moreWhen asked about the government's move, Virag said there was no alternative to curbing inflation and the bank needed all channels of monetary transmission for that. Economists project Hungary's average inflation will rise to 16% next year from 14.3% expected in 2022, while economic growth is seen grinding to a halt. "The measure can be slightly positive for OTP (OTPB.BU), however this step impairs the monetary transmission of the central bank," the analysts said.

☆ Hungary stands firmly by Poland, Orban says after blast near Ukraine border
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BUDAPEST, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Hungary stands firmly by Poland, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday, saying a calm and thorough investigation was needed into the causes of the blast in the Polish village of Przewodow near the Ukraine border. read more"We need a calm and thorough investigation regarding the explosions in #Przewodow. One thing is for sure: Hungary stands firmly by Poland," Orban said on Twitter. Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Inflation expectations are de-anchoring from central bank targets, UniCredit CEE Chief Economist Dan Bucsa said. The situation is less clear in Poland though credit holidays to ease the burden of higher central bank interest rates are remaining heading into 2023. In western Europe, economists and financial markets largely expect price growth in the euro area to fall back to the European Central Bank's 2% target by 2024. "The upcoming general election is likely to stimulate fiscal expansion and, notably, the planned significant increase to the minimum wage from January may indeed spark a more substantial wage growth across the board." According to a Czech central bank survey, companies expect year-on-year inflation to be at 10.3% in one year and at 7.5% in three years, well above the central bank's 2% target.

☆ Hungary picks PwC partner to lead new anti-graft body overseeing EU funds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BUDAPEST, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Hungary's State Audit Office has picked PricewaterhouseCoopers forensic partner Ferenc Biro to lead a new anti-graft body to be launched by mid-November as part of efforts to regain access to European Union funds locked up over corruption risks. Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government has been locked in battles with Brussels over corruption, migration, LGBTQ rights and democratic standards. The body, to be launched by Nov. 19, will be tasked with reinforcing the prevention, detection and correction of fraud, conflicts of interest and corruption. It will have extensive powers such as instructing contracting authorities to suspend a procurement procedure and requesting probes. ($1 = 1.0229 euros)Reporting by Gergely Szakacs Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ In a land of spas, Hungary's cave bath falls victim to soaring gas prices
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Krisztina Fenyo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MISKOLCTAPOLCA, Hungary, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Staff turned off the lights and started draining the pools at Hungary's famous Miskolctapolca cave baths on Monday, after the centuries-old attraction succumbed to a modern-day crisis - soaring gas prices. Visitors have been coming to the vast cavern since before Roman times to bathe in its naturally heated waters. In recent years, the venue has relied on gas to top up the temperatures in the pools and the caves, particularly during winter. But then Russia invaded Hungary's neighbour Ukraine, sending shockwaves across the global economy and energy markets. For Miskolctapolca, and other businesses across Europe and beyond, that has filtered through in the form of crippling bills.

A view of the entrance to the National Bank of Hungary building in Budapest,Hungary February 9, 2016. Central European policymakers are seeking to end a cycle of interest rate hikes running since last year even as inflationary pressures remain and the world's major central banks keep pursuing higher rates. "It is likely the end of the rate hike cycle," Peter Virovacz, an analyst at ING in Budapest said. "The question is whether this is a halt – or a just a pause in rate hikes, leaving the door open to potential further tightening." Economists polled by Reuters last week forecast the base rate rising to 14% by the end of this year.

☆ Hungary central bank could end rate rise cycle after September -deputy governor Virag
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A view of the entrance to the National Bank of Hungary building in Budapest,Hungary February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Laszlo BaloghSZEGED, Hungary, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Hungary's central bank could consider ending its more than one-year-long cycle of interest rate rises after next Tuesday's meeting when rates will increase again, Deputy Governor Barnabas Virag told reporters on Thursday. Central Europe's rate setters were the quickest last year to begin raising rates and accelerated the pace this year as inflation surged, but some are starting to slow, or possibly end, tightening cycles. The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) raised its base rate by 100 basis points to 11.75% last month, but Virag has since raised the prospect of a halt to the bank's rate rise cycle, which totals more than 1,100 basis points since June 2021. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"We need to assess ending (the cycle) each month," Virag told reporters on the sidelines of an economics conference.

"It's about breaches of the rule of law compromising the use and management of EU funds," said EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn. The 7.5 billion euros in question amounts to 5% of the country's estimated 2022 GDP. Navracsics expressed hope that the Commission would be reassured by the implementation of the reforms and withdraw its proposed sanctions against Hungary by Nov. 19. The Commission is already blocking some 6 billion euros in funds envisaged for Hungary in a separate COVID economic recovery stimulus over the same corruption concerns. Hungary had irregularities in nearly 4% of EU funds spending in 2015-2019, according to the bloc's anti-fraud body OLAF, by far the worst result among the 27 EU countries.

☆ Factbox: Europe's efforts to shield households from soaring energy costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-02 | by ( Susanna Twidale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Without the measure, average home energy bills were tipped to reach over 3,500 pounds a year in October with forecasts of much higher bills to come. CZECH REPUBLICThe Czech government has agreed to cap electricity and gas prices next year to shield households from soaring prices. ITALYItaly approved an aid package worth some 14 billion euros ($14 billion) in September to shield firms and families from surging energy costs. The measures came on top of some 52 billion euros already budgeted since January to soften the energy crisis in Italy. NORWAYNorway has been subsidising household electricity bills since December and now covers 80% of the portion of power bills above a certain rate.

Search resuls for: "Gergely Szakacs"

21 mentions found