Hungarian pensioners cannot be the victims of the global crisis caused by the coronavirus, if the annual inflation is higher than 3.6 percent, and according to the latest calculations this seems very likely, then there will be another pension increase and retroactive payment in November - said Mihály Varga in an interview with Origo.
The Minister of Finance stated that this year was special from the point of view of pensions. As he said, there was a three percent pension increase at the beginning of the year, but inflation unexpectedly jumped, so the government decided to take a special, unusual step in the middle of the year.
Source: infostart.hu
In June, we carried out a mid-year pension increase: we increased the benefits, and the 0.6 percent increase was paid out to those entitled in a lump sum going back to the beginning of the year, he said. According to Mihály Varga, economies around the world are now being restarted after shutdowns due to the coronavirus, but in many cases the supply cannot keep up with this, and as a result, there is a temporary shortage of certain goods and raw materials.
As he said, the global restart requires a huge amount of energy, the demand for this is also driven by global trade conflicts, such as the one between Canada and the United States regarding certain wood materials. This disagreement also significantly influenced the price of wood products on the world and European markets. In the case of agricultural products, the weather is also decisive: due to the spring frosts, the prices of some fruits and vegetables in this country are rising, he explained.
The Minister of Finance added that the latest data suggest that the growth of the Hungarian economy may be greater than 14 percent in the second quarter, and that the GDP may increase by 6.5 percent for the whole year. Another 5.3 percent growth is expected next year, which means that, according to him, the domestic economy can recover the losses it suffered due to the coronavirus crisis in a year and a half.
Source: pénezcentrum.hu
Featured image: origo.hu
