Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office, informed the public about the decisions taken at the Hungarian government's meeting on Saturday.
The head of the Prime Minister's Office spoke about how the war and the sanctions given to it led to a brutal increase in energy prices. In order to protect people from these harmful consequences, the government has made decisions in the past. The gasoline and food price freeze will be extended, Gulyás announced. We will also extend the interest rate freeze by at least half a year, he added.
In his opinion, the war and the failed EU sanctions policy are the cause of the huge increase in energy prices and runaway inflation. Once the war ends and the sanctions are lifted, prices will plummet. Gulyás also spoke about the fact that perhaps more people fit into the defined average consumption than the government previously calculated. The government is doing everything to ensure that the Hungarian budget is such that the current system of price caps and utility subsidies remains alive.
Minister Márton Nagy presented the program with which the government helps SMEs with high energy needs. Energy-intensive businesses are those whose 3 percent of their net sales went to energy. The program starts on October 1 and runs until the end of 2023. One element is support for operating costs and investment costs, he added. In the case of operating costs, 50 percent of the price increase compared to last year is paid in October, November, and December. In the case of investment costs, SMEs will be helped to support self-reliance up to 15 percent, said the minister. In the case of SMEs, the goal is to ensure that the number of employees does not fall below 90 percent.
The government would also help the factories operate as much as possible. Here, there is only investment support to help energy efficiency, he added. In some sectors, due to the release of energy prices, workforce reductions may occur, and therefore a new job protection action plan is being launched, the details of which will be discussed by the government next week.
Gergely Gulyás also informed about the status of EU negotiations. He said there were no open questions in the field of conditionality. The undertakings have been approved by the government and the proposals will be submitted to the parliament. At the same time, he requested that the Parliament give priority to the adoption of these proposals in order to reach an agreement as soon as possible.
Source: Government information
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